Keller is the quietly sensible VA market in northeast Tarrant County, and I do not think it gets enough credit for it. There are about 2,711 veterans here — more than twice Southlake’s 1,151, in a city with roughly 16,462 households. The median owner-occupied home is about $594,300. And unlike its neighbor, it sits entirely in one county.
That combination makes almost everything about a VA purchase here simpler.
Keller’s median home value of $594,300 sits comfortably below the 2026 baseline conforming loan limit of $832,750. That matters more than it sounds like it should.
With full entitlement, there is no VA loan limit at any price — that has been true since 1 January 2020. But if your entitlement is partially used, because you already have a VA loan on another house, the county limit enters the formula and your zero-down ceiling lands somewhere well under the full limit.
If you want the arithmetic rather than the summary, it is in using a VA loan above the conforming loan limit.
Keller is entirely in Tarrant County. The city’s own property tax page names Tarrant County and the Tarrant Appraisal District, and Keller does not appear anywhere on Denton County’s list of cities or taxing entities.
That sounds like trivia until you compare it to Southlake, which straddles two counties and two appraisal districts, so a buyer there has to work out which one governs their specific parcel before they can even file a homestead exemption. In Keller you file with TAD. Done.
| Taxing entity | Rate |
|---|---|
| Keller ISD | 1.085200 |
| City of Keller | 0.287000 |
| Tarrant County | 0.186200 |
| Tarrant County Hospital District | 0.165000 |
| Tarrant County College District | 0.112280 |
| Tarrant Regional Water District | 0.026500 |
| Combined | 1.862180 |
2025 tax year — the last complete adopted set. The 2026 cycle is already under way and two of these have changed: Tarrant County College adopted 0.120000 in September 2026, and Carroll ISD adopted 0.926900 in August 2026. Rates are set each August and September, so pull the current year before you build a payment on them.
About 1.86%. Here is the wrinkle that catches people comparing the two cities: Keller’s combined rate is higher than Southlake’s 1.71%, even though Keller homes cost far less. The school rate is doing most of that work.
It still costs dramatically less in dollars, because the rate is applied to a much smaller number. Roughly $11,100 a year at Keller’s median against about $17,400 at Southlake’s — both before any homestead exemption, which will take a real bite out of each. The city publishes its own version of this: an average Keller homestead assessed at $478,600 pays about $1,373 in city taxes — the city is only 15 percent of the bill.
Keller ISD, and unusually for this area the answer really is that simple. The district’s own words: it serves “more than 30,000 students in portions of the cities of Colleyville, Fort Worth, Haltom City, Hurst, North Richland Hills, Southlake, Watauga, and Westlake and the entire City of Keller.” It covers 51 square miles, the third-largest land area of any district in Tarrant County.
That is a real contrast with Southlake, where three districts have a claim on different parts of the city and you genuinely do have to check the parcel. In Keller, the city boundary and the district boundary agree.
Attendance zones within the district still move, so confirm the specific campus for a specific address — but you are not going to buy in Keller and find yourself outside Keller ISD.
Three anchors worth knowing if you are relocating.
Keller sits north-northeast of downtown Fort Worth — call it a fifteen-mile drive, though you should time your own — with U.S. 377 running north-south through the city and FM 1709, Keller Parkway, running east-west.
A veteran rated 100 percent, or rated individually unemployable and paid at the 100 percent rate, gets a total exemption on the appraised value of their residence homestead in Texas. At Keller’s median value that is worth roughly $8,800 a year — less than a simple rate-times-value calculation suggests, because without it you would still be holding the ordinary homestead exemptions.
And a smaller point that surprises people: because Keller’s rate is higher than Southlake’s, the fixed-dollar partial exemptions are worth slightly more here. A $12,000 exemption saves about $223 a year in Keller against about $206 in Southlake. Small money, but it runs in the opposite direction from what everyone assumes.
The whole picture, including the filing mechanics with TAD: what the disabled veteran exemption is worth in Tarrant County.
| Keller | Southlake | |
|---|---|---|
| Median home value | $594,300 | $1,014,500 |
| Veterans | 2,711 | 1,151 |
| Households | 16,462 | 9,229 |
| Owner-occupied | 83.5% | 94.6% |
| Counties | Tarrant only | Tarrant and Denton |
| Combined tax rate | about 1.86% | about 1.71% |
Keller’s 83.5 percent owner-occupancy against Southlake’s 94.6 means there is actually something to rent here, which matters if you are PCS’ing in on short notice and want to learn the area before you commit.
None of this makes Keller better than Southlake. They are different products for different budgets. But if a lender or an agent has told you that a VA loan limits what you can buy, Keller is where that concern quietly stops being a concern at all.
Mechanically it is one of the easier ones in the area. Keller's median owner-occupied home value is about $594,300, comfortably below the 2026 baseline conforming loan limit of $832,750, so even a buyer with only partial entitlement usually has enough zero-down buying power to shop the middle of the market. Keller is also entirely within Tarrant County, so there is one appraisal district to deal with rather than two. There are about 2,711 veterans in the city.
For the 2025 tax year the combined rate was about $1.862180 per $100 of value: Keller ISD 1.085200, City of Keller 0.287000, Tarrant County 0.186200, Tarrant County Hospital District 0.165000, Tarrant County College District 0.112280 and Tarrant Regional Water District 0.026500. That is roughly 1.86 percent, or about $11,100 a year at Keller's median home value before any homestead exemption. Note that Keller's combined rate is actually higher than Southlake's 1.71 percent — the school rate accounts for most of the difference — though the dollar bill is far lower because home values are lower.
Yes. Keller ISD's own website states that it serves more than 30,000 students in portions of Colleyville, Fort Worth, Haltom City, Hurst, North Richland Hills, Southlake, Watauga and Westlake and the entire City of Keller, across 51 square miles. That is a genuine contrast with neighboring Southlake, where three districts cover different parts of the city. Carroll ISD's financial report does list Keller among the cities it serves, and Northwest ISD names Keller among the communities it partially serves — but those references appear to be mailing addresses outside the incorporated city. Attendance zones within Keller ISD still change, so confirm the specific campus for a specific address.
Tarrant County only. The City of Keller's own property tax page names Tarrant County and the Tarrant Appraisal District, and Keller does not appear on Denton County's list of cities or on its taxing entity table. This is a practical advantage over neighboring Southlake, which straddles both counties — a Keller buyer files homestead and veteran exemptions with one appraisal district without having to determine which county their parcel falls in.
Keller sits north-northeast of downtown Fort Worth and NAS Fort Worth JRB is on the west side of the city, so the commute is a cross-town drive rather than a straight run down one highway. Time it yourself at the hour you would actually be driving it before you commit to a neighborhood. The base is the first joint reserve base in the country, established October 1, 1994, and supports about 10,000 active duty, Reserve, Guard and civilian personnel.
It depends mostly on your entitlement and your budget rather than on any VA rule. Southlake's median home is about $1,014,500 and Keller's about $594,300. With full entitlement there is no VA loan limit and both are reachable. With partial entitlement, a typical remaining balance supports roughly $632,750 with nothing down, which works in Keller and generally does not in Southlake. Keller also has more than twice as many veterans, more rental stock at 83.5 percent owner-occupancy versus 94.6 percent, and a single county to deal with.
Thinking about Keller? Tell me your entitlement situation and your payment comfort zone and I will tell you honestly what that buys here, and whether you should be looking at Keller, Southlake or somewhere else entirely. I would rather send you to the right city than sell you the one I happen to have a listing in.
Ask me about KellerChecked September 2026. Texas tax rates are adopted each August and September and VA rules change — confirm current figures with your lender, the VA, or your appraisal district before you rely on them. I am a REALTOR, not a lender or a tax professional.
REALTOR® · BHHS PenFed Realty Texas
I help buyers and sellers across the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex — Fort Worth, Burleson, Crowley and Keller, and the surrounding Dallas area. I write these because they are the questions I answer on the phone every week, and most people never get a straight answer to them. If you have one I have not covered, ask me — I will probably turn it into the next post.