A town that zoned itself large-lot on purpose, and a school district line that runs straight through it.
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Fairview is a small town in Collin County (10,783 people per the US Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate), and its character is not an accident of history. It is written into the zoning code. Fairview’s Ranch Estate districts set minimum lot sizes of three acres, two acres, an acre and a half, and one acre, and the RE-1 district requires at least a full acre excluding road rights-of-way. That structurally caps density, which is why the town grows slowly, why the housing product is estate homes on land rather than production subdivisions, and why the median owner-occupied home value is $597,300, roughly 70% above Anna’s. Two things every Fairview buyer has to get right before writing an offer: the school district line, which splits the town between Lovejoy ISD and McKinney ISD; and the demographics, which are older than almost anywhere nearby.
Large-lot estate residential, a gated 55+ golf community, and a mixed-use town center, all in a town that legislated against density
Summers are hot and sunny with highs in the mid-to-upper 90s°F. Winters stay mild - expect 50°F afternoons mixed with the occasional cold snap. North Texas averages 229 sunny days, roughly 41 inches of rain, and minimal snow each year.
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A gated, age-restricted (55+) active-adult golf community: 1,144 single-family homes and attached villas on roughly 575 acres, with an 18-hole Arthur Hills-designed championship course and a 24,000-square-foot clubhouse. This one community is a large part of why Fairview’s median age is 49.1 and why 30% of the town is 65 or older.
Not a subdivision. It is a zoning fact, and the one that actually describes what most Fairview buyers are purchasing. Single-family homes on lots with 3-acre, 2-acre, 1.5-acre and 1-acre minimums, with RE-1 requiring at least an acre excluding road rights-of-way. The stated purpose of the RE-1 district is “to promote and encourage a suitable environment for family life on land parcels of not less than one acre.” In Fairview you are buying land as much as you are buying a house.
Understanding Fairview's community composition helps buyers match lifestyle preferences with neighborhood character. The figures below reference recent American Community Survey estimates and city planning reports.
Total Population
10,783
US Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate. The 2020 Decennial Census counted 10,372.
Median Age
49.1 years
US Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year (table B01002). Markedly older than Anna (32.1) or Little Elm (35.4).
Residents 65 and Over
30.1%
US Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year (table B01001). More than five times Anna’s share, and the key to reading every other statistic on this page.
Median Household Income
$109,347
US Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year, in 2024 dollars; MOE ±$18,030. Per-capita income is $62,345, which is far above Anna’s or Little Elm’s and is the better affluence signal here.
Median Home Value
$597,300
Median value of owner-occupied housing units, US Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year (table B25077): roughly 70% above Anna’s and 42% above Little Elm’s. Owner-reported value, not a sale price.
Homeownership Rate
73.9%
Owner-occupied share of occupied housing units, computed from US Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year table B25003. The renter share reflects apartments at and near Fairview Town Center.
Puster Elementary SchoolElementary
Lovejoy ISD. One of two Lovejoy campuses physically located inside Fairview; opened August 2008.
Sloan Creek Intermediate SchoolMiddle
Lovejoy ISD’s 5th-6th grade campus, on Country Club Road (FM 1378) in Fairview; opened August 2008. The other Lovejoy campus inside town limits.
Willow Springs Middle SchoolMiddle
Lovejoy ISD’s 7th-8th grade campus. Located in Lucas, not in Fairview.
Hart Elementary SchoolElementary
Lovejoy ISD elementary campus, located in Lucas.
Lovejoy High SchoolHigh
Lovejoy ISD’s only comprehensive high school, located in Lucas. District distinctions published by the Fairview EDC include a Texas HEB Excellence in Education Award and multiple UIL Lone Star Cup wins.
Carrie L. Lovejoy Child Development CenterSpecialty
Lovejoy ISD early learning and Pre-K, ages 18 months to 4 years. Located in Allen; formerly Lovejoy Elementary, converted in 2021.
McKinney ISD (western Fairview and a small northeast pocket)All
Per the Town of Fairview’s own schools page, McKinney ISD serves the western side of Fairview and a small area in the northeast, and operates no campus inside Fairview. Those students attend McKinney ISD schools outside the town limits. Which campus depends entirely on the address, so no campus list is given here.
Moving to Fairview means lining up the right vendor team, understanding seasonal weather shifts, and comparing neighborhoods before touring. Mali guides you through scouting trips, remote video tours, and negotiation strategy so your Fairview plan comes together smoothly.
Answers to common questions about living, buying, and relocating to Fairview, Texas.
Two of them, and this is the question to get right before anything else. Per the Town of Fairview’s own schools page, the majority of Fairview is served by Lovejoy ISD, while the western side of town and a small pocket in the northeast are served by McKinney ISD. Critically, McKinney ISD operates no campus inside Fairview: students in that portion attend McKinney ISD schools outside the town limits. Two Lovejoy ISD campuses are physically in Fairview: Puster Elementary and Sloan Creek Intermediate (grades 5-6) on Country Club Road. Lovejoy’s other campuses (Hart Elementary, Willow Springs Middle School and Lovejoy High School) are in Lucas. Never assume a Fairview address is Lovejoy ISD. Verify it address by address; it materially changes what you are paying for.
Because the town wrote it into law. Fairview’s zoning is built around Ranch Estate districts with minimum lot sizes of three acres, two acres, an acre and a half, and one acre; the RE-1 district requires a minimum of one acre excluding road rights-of-way, and its stated purpose is “to promote and encourage a suitable environment for family life on land parcels of not less than one acre.” That code structurally caps residential density. It is why the town is essentially exclusively low-density residential, why the rolling terrain, wooded areas, creek beds and ponds survived, and why Fairview does not grow the way Anna and Little Elm do. In Fairview you are buying land as much as a house.
The US Census ACS 2020-2024 five-year estimate puts the median value of owner-occupied homes at $597,300, roughly 70% above Anna’s and 42% above Little Elm’s. That is an owner-reported value, not a sale price; no credible median sale price for Fairview could be sourced, and we will not invent one. Two things drive that number: the acre-plus minimum lot sizes, and thin inventory in a town of under 11,000 people. Expect to wait for the right property rather than pick from a long list.
Because Fairview is a retiree town, and household income measures wages that many of its residents no longer earn. The ACS 2020-2024 five-year median household income is $109,347 (margin of error ±$18,030) against Anna’s $105,593. But 30.1% of Fairview residents are 65 or older, the median age is 49.1, and Heritage Ranch alone is a gated 1,144-home 55+ community. People living on retirement income and accumulated assets show up as modest household income and expensive houses at the same time. The fairer affluence signal is per-capita income: $62,345, far above Anna’s or Little Elm’s. Fairview is not a town under financial strain; it is a town that already made its money.
A gated, age-restricted (55+) active-adult golf community: 1,144 single-family homes and attached villas on roughly 575 acres, with an 18-hole, par-72 championship course designed by Arthur Hills and a 24,000-square-foot clubhouse. It is the reason a small Collin County town has a median age of 49.1 and a 30% share of residents over 65, and it is a genuinely distinct product from anything else in Fairview, worth evaluating on its own terms if you are 55 or older.
The anchor is Fairview Town Center. It was formerly called The Village at Fairview and has since been rebranded, so ignore listings still using the old name. It is an award-winning mixed-use retail, dining and entertainment development that the Town actively recruited, and it is a genuinely unusual amenity for a town of 10,783. Beyond it, Fairview’s amenity is the land itself: rolling terrain, woods, creeks and ponds, preserved by the acre-minimum zoning. Heritage Ranch Golf & Country Club sits inside the 55+ community’s gates.
Real, but not extreme. The ACS 2020-2024 five-year mean travel time to work for Fairview residents is 33.8 minutes, with a wide margin of error (±12.3 minutes) because the town is small. US-75 (Central Expressway) runs just west of town through Allen and McKinney; SH-121 (Sam Rayburn Tollway) handles regional east-west movement to the south and west; FM 1378 (Country Club Road) is the main arterial through Fairview itself. There is no rail. Residents commute mainly to Allen, McKinney, Plano, Frisco and Dallas. We do not publish drive-time figures to those cities, because no citable source exists for them.
Barely, and on purpose. The 2020 Census counted 10,372 residents and the ACS 2020-2024 five-year estimate is 10,783. Fairview’s Ranch Estate zoning, with its 3-acre, 2-acre, 1.5-acre and 1-acre minimums, puts a structural ceiling on how many homes can exist here. This is the exact opposite of Anna or Little Elm. If you want a town that will look the same in fifteen years, that is the argument for Fairview; if you want a growing tax base and new retail arriving every quarter, it is the argument against.
Have more questions about Fairview? Contact Mali at yourealtordfw@gmail.com or call (972) 408-6939.
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Every public campus inside Fairview city limits, with the letter grade and score the Texas Education Agency published for it in 2025. Enrolment and grades come straight from TEA's accountability download and the federal school directory, so nothing here is a third-party score that nobody refreshes.
Fairview is split across 2 school districts. Two houses on the same street can feed different districts, and boundaries in this corridor get redrawn most years as new campuses open. Confirm the assignment for the exact address with the district before you write an offer - and if the school is a reason you are buying, ask Mali to put the district's written confirmation in your file.
Collin County · 2 campuses in town
Collin County · zones part of town, no campus here
Fairview's own community pages put the west side of town, plus a small area in the far northeast, in McKinney ISD rather than Lovejoy ISD.
Lovejoy ISD · Grades K-4
Lovejoy ISD · Grades 5-6
Fairview homes are taxed by 4 separate governments, and the combined 2025 adopted rate is 1.80% per year of appraised value. That is the number before any exemption and before the special districts below - which is why the figure on a listing page and the figure on your first tax bill are so rarely the same.
| Taxing unit | Rate per $100 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Lovejoy ISD | 1.255200 | 70% |
| City of Fairview | 0.316658 | 18% |
| Collin County | 0.149343 | 8% |
| College district | 0.081220 | 5% |
| Combined | 1.802421 | 100% |
Collin County has no hospital district, which is the main structural reason its cities run below their Dallas County neighbours rather than anything about how Fairview budgets.
No exemption
$9,012
What an investor or second-home owner pays.
With homestead
$7,136
Effective rate 1.4273% of market value.
You keep
$1,876
Per year, once the exemption is filed and granted.
| Unit | Exemption | Taxed on | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lovejoy ISD | $140,000 | $360,000 | $4,519 |
| City | none adopted | $500,000 | $1,583 |
| County | $25,000 | $475,000 | $709 |
| College district | $100,000 | $400,000 | $325 |
Every school district in Texas must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value. Cities, counties and college districts may each adopt up to 20% on top, and several here adopt nothing at all - which is why this has to be worked out one unit at a time rather than netted against the combined rate. Year one is billed at full market value; the 10% appraisal cap starts the January after your exemption is granted.
Collin County has 28 special districts levying their own rate on top of everything above - 23 Municipal Utility Districts, 3 Municipal Management Districts, 1 Water Control & Improvement Districts, 1 Fresh Water Supply Districts. Adopted 2025 rates run from 0.41 to 1.20 per $100. At the top of that range a district adds more than half again the entire Fairview stack, and none of it is reduced by a homestead exemption.
These follow subdivision boundaries, not city limits, so two houses a mile apart in Fairview can differ by a full point. They are most common in newer master-planned communities, because that is what the bonds paid to build.
A Public Improvement District is not a taxing unit. It is an assessment a city levies on the specific parcels that benefited from the roads, water and amenities its bonds paid for - set per parcel, absent from every rate table and every listing-site tax estimate, and not reduced by a homestead exemption because it is not a tax. It typically runs the life of the bonds, often 20 to 40 years, and can frequently be paid off in a lump sum. In a new-build community that is the difference between the budget you built and the payment you owe, and the option period is when you find out.
HOA dues are a private contract with the neighbourhood association. They are not on the tax bill, not collected by the county, not deductible, and not touched by any exemption - and a community can have an HOA and a MUD and a PID at once, which is the combination that catches people out. Ask for the dues, the transfer fee, the reserve study and any special assessment in writing, and read them alongside the tax bill rather than instead of it.