The wealthiest town out here, and the one whose buyers are least stretched.
Curious how Heath stacks up against nearby options? Let's talk through current inventory, new-build timelines, and off-market opportunities tailored to you.
Heath is a small luxury lakefront town of about 10,800 people (US Census ACS 2024; local 2026 projections run nearer 12,000) on the eastern shore of Lake Ray Hubbard, just south of Rockwall and roughly 30 minutes from downtown Dallas. Its median household income is $220,828 (2024) - not a typo, and well over Flower Mound’s $161,235 - against a median sale price of $749,551 (Redfin, May 2026). That ratio, about 3.4x, is the lowest of any city covered here: Heath looks like the most expensive place on this site and is actually the one its residents afford most comfortably. It shares Rockwall ISD with Rockwall, which is why the district’s second comprehensive campus is Rockwall-Heath High School.
A small, affluent lakefront town built around water, golf, and acreage
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.
Match your wish list - from walkable districts to gated communities - with these buyer favorites. Mali can share recent closings, HOA nuances, and off-market conversations for each pocket.
A 787-acre master-planned resort community on Lake Ray Hubbard, with a resort pool and clubhouse, fitness center, community guest boat slips, trails and tennis - the town’s social and residential anchor.
An established custom-home community around an 18-hole golf course, spanning Buffalo Creek Estates, Tennis Village and the Enclave; homes generally run from about 2,100 to 5,000-plus square feet.
A smaller, established Heath neighborhood on the southern, Lake Ray Hubbard side of town, with roughly 83 lots. Most of its homes were built from the mid-1980s through the 1990s, and many now sit on generous lots with mature trees and landscaping that give the streets privacy and shade.
The private-peninsula and large-lot estate side of Heath, where the genuine luxury lakefront - sea walls and boat docks - is concentrated.
Understanding Heath'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
≈10,800
US Census ACS 2024 estimate (the 2020 Census counted 9,769). You will also see 12,103 quoted for 2026: that is a projection, not a count, and Heath is small enough that estimates vary widely by source and vintage. The ACS figure is the one this guide leads with, because it is the one every other city page here is measured on.
Median Household Income
$220,828
US Census ACS 2024 estimate (Data USA) - the highest in this guide set, roughly 37% above Flower Mound’s.
Homeownership Rate
≈98%
ACS 2024 (Data USA). Extremely high, and plausible for a large-lot, owner-occupied luxury town, though the small sample widens the margin of error.
Population Density
≈809 per sq mi
2020 Census, across about 12 square miles of land - a fraction of the density of the built-out suburbs, reflecting acreage and large lots.
Median Age
Early-to-mid 40s
Sources range from about 43.5 to 44.4 (2020 Census / ACS 2024) - an established, affluent, family-and-empty-nester town.
Rockwall-Heath High SchoolHigh
Rockwall ISD. Heath addresses are in the Rockwall-Heath attendance zone - one of the district’s two comprehensive high schools (the other is Rockwall High School).
Maurine Cain Middle SchoolMiddle
Rockwall ISD middle school feeding the Rockwall-Heath zone.
Amy Parks-Heath ElementaryElementary
Rockwall ISD elementary serving Heath addresses.
Dorothy Smith Pullen / Dorris A. Jones ElementaryElementary
Additional Rockwall ISD elementaries that feed the Rockwall-Heath zone for parts of Heath.
Rockwall ISD (boundary caveat)All
Rockwall ISD’s boundary contains parts of Rockwall, Heath, Fate, McLendon-Chisholm and Rowlett, and attendance zones are drawn by the district, not by Heath’s town limits - so a Heath address does not guarantee a specific campus. Verify the exact elementary and middle assignment with the district before you offer.
Moving to Heath 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 Heath plan comes together smoothly.
Answers to common questions about living, buying, and relocating to Heath, Texas.
It has the highest median sale price of any city covered here apart from Prosper - about $749,551 (Redfin, May 2026) - and yet it is the town whose residents afford their housing most comfortably. Median household income is $220,828 (2024), so the price-to-income ratio is roughly 3.4x, the lowest in this guide set. Frisco’s is about 4.7x. Heath looks like the biggest stretch on paper and is the smallest one in practice.
It is one of the few genuine luxury lakefront markets in suburban DFW - private peninsula estates with sea walls and boat docks on Lake Ray Hubbard, roughly 30 minutes from downtown Dallas. Waterfront listings run a median asking price near $827K and luxury listings near $849K. It is also a slow market at about 81 days and one offer on average, down 4.5% year over year, which means there is negotiating room that Frisco or Flower Mound buyers do not get.
Rockwall ISD, shared with the city of Rockwall - which is why the district’s second comprehensive campus is named Rockwall-Heath High School. Rockwall ISD ranks in the top 15% of districts statewide and runs 2 major high schools, 3 middle schools, and 15 elementary schools. The district boundary does not match the town limits, so verify the campus assignment for the exact address before you write an offer.
About 30 minutes from downtown Dallas in normal conditions, reached via Rockwall and the I-30 corridor. It inherits Rockwall’s trade-off: I-30 crosses Lake Ray Hubbard, so traffic funnels onto a bridge with no parallel route, and there is no rail. If your job is in the Plano or Frisco corridor, this is the wrong side of the metro.
There are really four addresses to know, and they sort by what you want from the water. Heath Golf & Yacht Club is the town’s anchor: a 787-acre master-planned resort community with a clubhouse, resort pool, fitness center, trails, tennis and community guest boat slips. Buffalo Creek is the established alternative off the water, built around an 18-hole course and spanning Buffalo Creek Estates, Tennis Village and the Enclave, with homes generally from about 2,100 to 5,000-plus square feet. Mariah Bay is waterfront-oriented on the Lake Ray Hubbard side. And the Terry Lane peninsula is where the genuine luxury lakefront sits - private estates with sea walls and boat docks.
The honest answer is that Heath is built for the lake and the lots rather than for going out. Residents boat on Lake Ray Hubbard, play Buffalo Creek, and use the Heath Golf & Yacht Club as the social center of town. The city runs a small-town events calendar - an Independence Day parade in summer and Christmas in Heath in December among them. For restaurants, shopping and everyday errands, the practical hub is Rockwall along the I-30 corridor a few miles north. That is the deliberate trade-off for the quiet and the acreage, and you should drive it before deciding it suits you.
Not really, and the guide would rather say so than dress it up. Heath is a residential lake town with essentially no corporate or industrial base of its own. The nearest large employers are in neighboring Rockwall, including Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Rockwall and the I-30 retail corridor. Households here commute, most often west toward Dallas, and average roughly three vehicles because there is no transit at all. The case for Heath is lifestyle, lots and Rockwall ISD - not a short drive to work.
Four things. Verify the school assignment with Rockwall ISD directly, because the district zones across several cities and a Heath mailing address does not fix the elementary or middle campus. Budget for the realities of acreage and waterfront: sea walls, docks, septic and well on some larger lots, and higher insurance on the lakefront - inspect accordingly. Use the negotiating room, since about 81 days on market and one offer on average is not a market that demands a rushed offer. And drive the commute through Rockwall and across the I-30 bridge at your real hour, not on a Sunday.
Have more questions about Heath? Contact Mali at yourealtordfw@gmail.com or call (972) 408-6939.
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Every public campus inside Heath 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.
Attendance boundaries are set by the district, not the city, and they get redrawn as new campuses open. A campus being the closest one is not the same as being the assigned one. 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.
Rockwall County · 3 campuses in town
Rockwall ISD · Grades PreK-6
Rockwall ISD · Grades PreK-6
Rockwall ISD · Grades 9-12
Heath homes are taxed by 3 separate governments, and the combined 2025 adopted rate is 1.59% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Rockwall ISD | 1.066900 | 67% |
| City of Heath | 0.275650 | 17% |
| Rockwall County | 0.251000 | 16% |
| Combined | 1.593550 | 100% |
Rockwall County has neither a community-college district nor a hospital district, so a Heath bill has three lines where a Dallas County bill has five. That structural difference, not municipal thrift, is most of the gap when you compare rates across the metro.
We are not publishing a homestead estimate for Heath. The rates above come from the Comptroller's statutory filings and are solid, but the exemption each taxing unit has adopted is confirmed here by only one published schedule - and those schedules demonstrably lag a council vote. (One 2025 county schedule still listed a town at 12.5% months after it had voted to 20%.) A figure built on that would look precise and be wrong, so you get the rates and a real answer instead: ask Mali, or call the appraisal district, and we will confirm the exemptions in writing before you budget from them.
Rockwall County has 7 special districts levying their own rate on top of everything above - 7 Municipal Utility Districts. Adopted 2025 rates run from 0.15 to 1.00 per $100. At the top of that range a district adds more than half again the entire Heath 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 Heath 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.