Fulshear, TX

Where Fulshear sits

Fulshear grew up where two farm-to-market roads meet: FM 359 and FM 1093, in northwestern Fort Bend County. That crossroads is still the center of town, with master-planned subdivisions and older farm and ranch country spreading out around it.

An 1824 town with a railroad-era core

The City of Fulshear dates its founding to July 16, 1824, when Mexico granted land to Churchill Fulshear, one of Stephen F. Austin’s “Old Three Hundred” colonists. The family plantation had a cotton gin, a flour mill and a four-story brick house. Churchill Fulshear Jr. built the house in the 1850s. It was torn down around 1933.

The railroad shaped the town. In 1888, Fulshear Jr. granted the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway a right-of-way through his land. Scotch-Irish, Czech and German families traveling inland from Galveston settled along it, and the city’s history also records a Freedman’s community in the area. In 1890 the town was laid out and got a post office. The Methodist church founded in 1894 is now First United Methodist Church, still in downtown Fulshear.

Fulshear has boomed and emptied before:

• 1898: 250 residents supported eleven stores, three saloons, a school and a hotel.
• 1910: A fire destroyed a block of businesses, and the town rebuilt.
• 1929 to 1933: The population dropped from 300 to 100 during the Depression.
• World War II: Residents staffed an airplane lookout station every day on the roof of a downtown brick building.
• 1948: Fulshear’s schools, which had been separated by race, merged into Lamar Consolidated ISD.

The city’s history lists the farm economy the town grew on: rice, cotton, soybeans, corn, sorghum, poultry, pecans, horses and cattle, many of them Texas Longhorns. For deeper local history, the Fulshear Historical Association runs a digital “museum without walls,” the Fulshear Museum of Arts & Heritage.

From 716 residents to 64,630

For most of the 20th century Fulshear stayed small. It counted 623 residents in 1988 and 716 in the 2000 Census. The 2020 Census found 16,856. The Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 estimates put Fulshear at 64,630 on July 1, 2025. That was a 21.0% increase in one year, which made Fulshear the second-fastest-growing U.S. city with 20,000 or more people.

With growth this fast, ask what is planned next to or near a given street before you buy: a future school site, a road project, or the next phase of a subdivision.

City limits or ETJ? Check before you compare

A Fulshear mailing address doesn’t tell you whether a home is inside the city. The City of Fulshear’s website says its limits cover a little over 12 square miles, with roughly 29 more square miles in its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). Two homes a few minutes apart can sit under different taxing entities and different rules, depending on which side of the city line they fall on.

Check it before you compare homes: it changes the tax math and which government you call about roads and permits.

Amenity-center subdivisions vs. the farm-and-ranch fringe

Homes here generally fall into two groups.

Master-planned communities. The city credits much of its recent growth to master-planned communities with amenity centers and trails. They usually come with an HOA and a municipal utility district (MUD). Under the Texas Water Code, a MUD can supply water, handle wastewater and control storm water, and, as the tax table below shows, it levies its own property tax. Cross Creek West is one published example: its developer’s page lists HOA dues of $1,500 a year for the current year, plus a $50 service assessment that includes streetlights.

Land and acreage. Outside the subdivisions, buyers also look at homes on acreage and rural tracts. Land, acreage and ranch property are Angie’s specialty, and the checklist changes. Get a current survey and confirm access and easements. Find out how water and wastewater are handled: well and septic, or a utility. Check the flood zone for the whole tract, not just the homesite. Confirm the school district, and ask how the property is taxed today, since that can change after a sale.

Schools: Lamar CISD or Katy ISD depends on the street

Fulshear is split between two public school districts, Lamar CISD and Katy ISD, so two homes a short drive apart can be in different districts.

• Fulshear High School (Lamar CISD) opened in 2016 at 9302 Charger Way. It serves the Lamar CISD part of Fulshear along with Weston Lakes and Simonton.
• Jordan High School (Katy ISD) opened to students in fall 2020 at 27500 Fulshear Bend Drive. It opened drawing from Adams Junior High and part of Seven Lakes Junior High.

Being in “Fulshear” doesn’t tell you the district, and attendance zones can shift as new campuses open. Confirm the exact address with the district for the school year you’ll move in. Don’t rely on a listing’s school fields or a subdivision name.

Taxes: read the whole bill

In Texas, property taxes are a major ongoing cost of owning a home, and in the Fulshear area the rate can differ from one section to the next. A real example is Cross Creek West’s published 2025 rates for sections in Fort Bend MUD 198 (the community also includes MUD 195), per $100 of value:

Taxing unit	2025 rate per $100
Fort Bend County	0.412
Fort Bend County Drainage	0.01
Emergency Services District #4	0.098689
Lamar CISD	1.1469
Fort Bend MUD 198	1.50

Those lines add up to about $3.17 per $100 (the developer’s page shows a rounded total of $3.16). Nearly half of it is the MUD. As an illustration only, at that rate a home with a taxable value of $500,000 would owe roughly $15,800 a year before any exemptions you qualify for.

That example has no City of Fulshear line, and a different MUD or school district changes the total. For any specific home, look it up in the Fort Bend Central Appraisal District’s property search and check every taxing unit on the record, including whether the city is one of them. Don’t estimate from a neighbor’s bill.

Flood risk: check the map, then ask more

Fort Bend County lists its effective flood insurance rate maps as dated April 2, 2014. In April 2019, FEMA released revised preliminary flood maps covering the cities of Fulshear, Simonton and Weston Lakes and unincorporated Fort Bend County; check the FEMA Map Service Center for their current status. FEMA notes that more than 25 percent of flood damages happen outside the high-risk flood zone. So a low-risk result is a starting point, not a guarantee.

Before an offer, look up the address in the FEMA Flood Map Service Center and on the county’s floodplain map. Read the seller’s disclosure for past flooding or claims. On acreage, walk where water collects across the whole property.

Parks, events and the town calendar

The City of Fulshear lists four parks and facilities:

• Frances Smart Park: a gazebo.
• Irene Stern Community Center: an indoor venue, playground and pavilion.
• Eagle Landing Park: soccer fields, a playground, a pavilion with concessions, and open space.
• Primrose Park: baseball and softball fields, a concessions building and a walking path, opened June 13, 2026. A later phase with a food truck area, playground, amphitheater and open space is planned for late 2027.

A long-running town tradition is Fulshear’s Folly. It traces back to Fourth of July barbecues in the 1940s and got its name in 1978. The city is bringing it back in 2026 as a fall concert at the Municipal Complex on W. Cross Creek Bend Lane.

Before you write an offer in Fulshear

1. Confirm whether the home is in city limits or the ETJ.
2. Confirm the school district and zoned schools for your move-in year.
3. Get every tax rate on the bill, including the MUD, plus HOA dues and fees.
4. Look up the flood zone and ask about flood history and insurance.
5. Drive the commute from the actual house at the hour you’d leave.

Angie works both sides of Fulshear: new-construction and resale homes in the planned communities, and land, acreage and ranch property outside town. Ask her about a specific street or tract, and she’ll help you pin down the district, taxing entities and flood details before you commit.