Before a buyer signs a contract on a home in Westside Preserve or Redden Farms, the seller has to hand over a short form. Texas Property Code §5.014 requires the seller to give the buyer written notice about the Public Improvement District before a binding purchase contract is signed. The notice can come as a separate document or as an addendum. A separate copy is signed by both parties and recorded in county real property records at closing. The notice says an assessment has been levied against the lot, that it can be prepaid or paid in yearly installments, and that missed payments can bring penalties, interest, a lien, or foreclosure. It sends the buyer to the City for the exact amounts.
Those amounts are what matters here. In Midlothian's newer PID neighborhoods, the yearly installment can be larger than the city's entire property tax bill on an average home. That changes how a resale and a new-construction home at the same price compare.
A Penny Off the Rate, and $64.53 Off the Average Bill
On September 9, 2026, Midlothian City Council adopted Ordinance 2026-58. It sets the city rate for tax year 2026 at $0.640000 per $100 of value, down from $0.650000. The city's truth-in-taxation notice puts the average homestead's taxable value at $336,475. City tax on that home drops from $2,217.97 to $2,153.44, a savings of $64.53.
Midlothian ISD also cut its rate. Trustees voted 6-1 for a rate the district says is 4.39 cents below last year's $1.0708. The district's announcement gives the adopted total as $1.02969. Its two components, $0.6169 for maintenance and operations and $0.41 for debt service, add up to $1.0269, and the district's tax information page lists $1.0269 as the current total. This post uses $1.0269. The district estimates the average homeowner will pay about $92 less in school taxes, based on an average market value of $480,494. Ellis County adopted $0.273500. Added together, the city, school district, and county come to $1.9404 per $100. That is about $1,940 per $100,000 of taxable value before exemptions. Some parcels are also taxed by entities not counted here.
Even with the lower rate, the ordinance includes this sentence in capital letters, as state law requires:
"THE TAX RATE WILL EFFECTIVELY BE RAISED BY 3.50 PERCENT AND WILL RAISE TAXES FOR MAINTENANCE AND OPERATIONS ON A $100,000 HOME BY APPROXIMATELY $11.38."
That line is there because $0.64 is above the city's no-new-revenue rate of $0.604722, the rate that would collect the same money from the same properties as last year. The average homestead's bill still goes down because its taxable value also fell, by 1.39%.
Growth Is Paying for the Cut
The city's total levy rises from $45,618,505 to $51,178,657, an increase of $5,560,152 or 12.19%. Of that increase, $5,001,958 comes from new property added to the tax roll this year. Councilmember Ross Weaver noted at the meeting that about 90% of the revenue increase came from new construction and about 10% from existing properties. Last year, he said, the split was closer to half and half. He said that growth was what let the council lower the rate by a penny.
This means people who already own homes are getting a small cut because new rooftops and new commercial property are joining the tax roll. New subdivisions are a large part of that growth, and in them the infrastructure that made the lots buildable has its own yearly bill.
What a Westside Preserve Lot Owes in January
Westside Preserve's PID administrator, P3Works, posts assessment details for each parcel. Under the 2026 Annual Service Plan Update approved August 25, 2026, a Lot Type 1 parcel in Improvement Area #1 owes $2,762.63 on January 31, 2027. A Lot Type 2 parcel owes $3,119.10. The original service plan describes Lot Type 1 as lots marketed to builders as 62-foot lots and Lot Type 2 as 70-foot lots.
On the parcel record for 4517 Biddle Street, a Lot Type 1 home, the installment breaks down as follows.
| Line item on the January 31, 2027 installment | Amount |
|---|---|
| Principal | $649.72 |
| Interest | $1,854.44 |
| Additional interest | $176.61 |
| Collection expenses | $81.86 |
| Total installment | $2,762.63 |
| Outstanding assessment on the lot | $35,321.98 |
About 76% of this year's payment is interest and fees. Less than a quarter of it reduces the balance. The Lot Type 2 disclosure schedule continues through 2052. In the early years, the installment mostly pays for borrowing, and the balance comes down slowly.
Compare that $2,762.63 with the city's average homestead tax bill of $2,153.44. The PID installment is $609.19 higher. The Lot Type 2 installment is $965.66 higher. At the combined city, county, and school rate of $1.9404, the Lot Type 1 installment equals the regular tax on about $142,000 of extra taxable value. The yearly installment did fall slightly from the 2025 plan, which billed $2,793.90 and $3,154.40 for the two lot types.
Redden Farms Runs Longer
In Redden Farms, the installments are a little lower, and its schedule runs longer. The 2026 Amended and Restated Service and Assessment Plan, also dated August 25, 2026, sets these 2027 installments:
- Improvement Area #3, Lot Type 5: $2,321.89, with $28,570.71 outstanding
- Improvement Area #5, Lot Type 7: $2,140.93, with $24,325.25 outstanding
- Improvement Area #6, Lot Type 8: $2,543.14, with $21,172.30 outstanding
All three schedules run through 2056. The bonds for Improvement Areas #3 through #6 mature in 2036, 2046, and 2056. The lowest of these installments is still within about $13 of the city's average homestead bill. The 2026 disclosures do not give lot widths for these lot types, so buyers should ask the builder or the City which lot type a specific address falls under.
The buyer disclosure calls these projections estimates that can change with each annual update. The Westside plan says a parcel's billed amount can also change before billing because of prepayments or redemptions.
The Next Subdivision Uses the Same Model
On April 28, 2026, council approved Bloomfield Homes' Rancho Lago planned development. It covers 248.246 acres north of FM 1387 at Hayes Road. The development agreement passed 5-2, and a PID reimbursement agreement passed 7-0. Coverage of the meeting described about 600 lots in total, roughly 503 of them net new, plus a 54-acre public park. No per-lot installment schedule for Rancho Lago has been published yet. A buyer looking there this fall can't yet compare it the way Westside Preserve and Redden Farms can be compared.
Commercial growth is set up in a similar way. On September 22, council approved a planned development for Digital Ranch LLC's three-building data center campus south of RailPort Business Park, which totals 3.9 million square feet. Council also created Midlothian Municipal Management District No. 4. Assistant City Manager Clyde Melick described a tax increment, or TIRZ, arrangement to pay for the site's water, wastewater, road, drainage, and power infrastructure. Applicant Patrick Noonan of Merrell Capital said Digital Ranch will not ask for a tax abatement, according to the Midlothian Mirror. Under a TIRZ, new tax revenue from the site goes back into its infrastructure. In the PID subdivisions, the homeowner pays for that infrastructure through the yearly installment.
Comparing a Resale and a New Build at the Same Price
Ellis County buyers have time to run these numbers. MetroTex's August 2026 Ellis County report shows a $435,000 median price, up 8.8% from August 2025. Homes took a median of 77 days to sell, and the county had 4.5 months of inventory. Those are countywide figures, not Midlothian-only numbers.
If a resale outside a PID and a new build in Westside Preserve are listed at the same price, their regular property taxes are calculated the same way. The new build adds an installment of roughly $2,100 to $3,100 a year, depending on the subdivision and lot type. That is close to $175 to $260 a month on top of the regular tax bill. Before comparing the two homes on price, take these steps:
- Look up the address on P3Works's assessment roll for the lot type, outstanding balance, and next installment.
- Check whether a lien release is shown. A "Y" means the assessment has been prepaid in full.
- Call P3Works at (817) 393-0353 for a payoff quote if prepaying is an option.
- Read the §5.014 notice before signing, because it must arrive before the contract is binding.
- Use the current parcel record for regular taxes, since the city, school, and county rates change every year.
This is general information, not tax or financial advice. Confirm the figures for your parcel with the taxing entities and a tax professional.
FAQ
Does every new home in Midlothian sit in a PID? No. The City's records show Westside Preserve, Redden Farms, and MidTowne as PIDs, and Rancho Lago's PID agreement was approved in 2026. Those records are not a complete list, so check each address on its own.
How long do the PID schedules run? Westside Preserve's Lot Type 2 schedule runs through 2052, and Redden Farms' runs through 2056.
Did the city tax cut lower my bill? For the average homestead, the city's own notice shows a $64.53 decrease for tax year 2026. Your bill depends on your taxable value and any exemptions.
Westside Preserve, Redden Farms, and Rancho Lago each carry a different yearly installment, and that cost doesn't appear in a list price. Make Your Move Group will pull the PID roll and the current tax rates for any Midlothian address you're considering, so you can compare homes by what they cost each year. Hablamos español. Move with Purpose. Make Your Move Today.
