Northwest Houston · Jersey Village
Jersey Village, TX — Homes, Taxes & Flood History
A separate city inside Harris County, with its own tax rate, its own permit office and a flood record that is badly misunderstood. Here is what actually decides whether a house here is a good buy.
The thing almost every guide gets wrong
Jersey Village is an incorporated city, not a Houston neighbourhood and not part of Cypress. It incorporated in 1956, occupies about 3.4 square miles inside Harris County, and runs its own police department, fire and EMS service, and water and sewer utility. The 2020 Census counted 7,976 residents; the 2025 estimate is 7,729.
That matters commercially, not just as trivia. The city sets a tax rate that unincorporated neighbours do not pay. The city issues the permits for your addition. The city enforces the codes. If you are comparing a Jersey Village house against one in 77065 outside the limits, you are comparing two different regulatory and tax regimes that happen to share a mailing address.
The address trap
There is no ZIP code whose USPS primary city is “Jersey Village.” Addresses associated with it fall across 77040, 77041, 77064 and 77065, and for all four the primary city is Houston, with Jersey Village carried as an acceptable alternate mailing name.
So a listing that says Jersey Village does not prove the house is inside the city limits, and one that says Houston does not prove it isn't. City limits follow parcel boundaries, not ZIPs and not subdivision names. I have watched buyers budget for a city tax rate on a house that doesn't pay it, and budget without one on a house that does.
Before you rely on it in either direction, confirm the parcel with the city and pull the jurisdiction list from HCAD. It takes five minutes and it is the single highest-value five minutes in this whole page.
What you actually pay
The city adopted $0.8146 per $100 of valuation for tax year 2025 — $0.6565 for maintenance and operations and $0.1581 for debt service — alongside a $72.6 million budget.
That is the city's slice only. On top of it sit Harris County's combined rate, the school district, and smaller units including the county Department of Education and Houston Community College. Adding the published rates for each puts the combined figure in the region of $2.61 per $100 — but that is my arithmetic from separate published sources, not a figure any authority publishes as a total. For a real number, use the jurisdiction list on the parcel.
City tax versus MUD tax — check, don't assume
Buyers often assume an incorporated city is simply the more expensive option. It is not that simple. Inside the city you pay a city rate. In many unincorporated areas nearby there is no city rate, but there is frequently a Municipal Utility District levy instead — and MUD rates vary sharply between subdivisions that are minutes apart. Jersey Village funds its water and sewer through its own utility and user fees. Get the jurisdiction list for both addresses and compare the totals, not the labels.
Flooding: the real record
Jersey Village sits on White Oak Bayou and it has a genuine flood history. The city's own floodplain records give the pattern:
- Tropical Storm Allison, June 2001 — about 500 homes
- October 2002 — more than 200 homes
- Tropical Storm Frances, 1998 — about 200 homes
- Tax Day flood, 18 April 2016 — 238 homes
Harvey is the wrong reference point
Nearly every buyer arrives asking about 2017. Reporting from the period indicates White Oak Bayou came close but stayed within its banks during Harvey, and Jersey Village residents were largely spared. The defining event here is the Tax Day flood of 18 April 2016, when 238 homes took water. If your mental model of this city is built on Harvey, it is built on the wrong storm.
What has been built since
The city commissioned a long-term flood recovery study, then built. An earth berm at Jersey Meadow Golf Course completed in April 2022 at about $1.3 million. A street drainage project covering Wall, Carlsbad, Crawford, Capri and Tahoe completed in May 2022 at about $5.7 million. The funding came largely from FEMA, the Texas Infrastructure Resiliency Fund and the Texas General Land Office rather than from the city alone. Separately, dozens of individual homes have been elevated under successive FEMA grant rounds, and Harris County Flood Control has been widening and deepening the White Oak Bayou E-100 channel to 30 feet through the city.
None of this makes any individual house safe, and none of it makes the city a bad buy. It means the question is always about the parcel — its elevation, its designation, whether it has flooded, and whether it has been elevated — never about the reputation of the postcode.
The draft 2026 FEMA maps
Harris County's flood maps are being rebuilt for the first time since 2007 and the draft substantially expands the high-risk floodplain countywide. I have not seen any published analysis specific to Jersey Village parcels, so I am not going to invent one — but I can pull the current and draft designation for a specific address and tell you exactly what changed. What the draft maps mean for a purchase this year.
What a Jersey Village house needs, by era
The stock here began in the mid-1950s and built out mainly through the 1960s, 70s and 80s, largely mid-century ranch, with a median year built around 1974. Census figures for 2020–2024 put the median home value at $346,900, with 45.4% of units owner-occupied.
I work in residential construction as well as holding a real estate licence, which means I price these things before you write an offer rather than after the inspection report lands and your leverage is gone.
Cast iron sewer, and why a camera beats an opinion
Houses of this vintage were plumbed in cast iron below the slab. It corrodes from the inside and it fails quietly. A sewer scope costs a couple of hundred dollars; a replacement runs into five figures and involves opening the slab. The scope is the cheapest insurance in this ZIP band and almost nobody orders one.
Aluminium branch wiring — genuinely relevant here
The Consumer Product Safety Commission dates common residential aluminium branch wiring to roughly 1965 through the mid-1970s. On most of my northwest Houston pages I tell people to stop worrying about it, because the stock is 1980s. Jersey Village is the exception: a meaningful share of this housing sits inside that window. Ask, and get the answer in writing. Remediation is routine and it is not expensive relative to what it prevents.
Polybutylene supply lines
Grey, white or blue flexible supply lines stamped PB2110, common from roughly 1978 to 1995. Look under the kitchen sink and at the water heater. They fail from the inside, so they look perfectly fine right up until they don't.
Roof age versus insurability
A roof can pass an inspection and still make the house hard to insure. Carriers commonly drop to actual cash value around fifteen years and some will not write past twenty. The inspector's job is to tell you it isn't leaking. Nobody's job is to tell you what it does to your premium — so ask for the roof age in writing, and get a bound quote rather than an estimate before your option period expires.
Additions, and the permit question a city changes
This is where being inside an incorporated city matters most. Jersey Village issues its own permits and enforces its own codes rather than deferring to the county. An addition, a garage conversion or a slab extension follows the city's process. Unpermitted work on a house you are buying is usually fixable, but it is far cheaper to find it during the option period than at the appraisal.
None of this is a reason not to buy. It is a reason to know the number first. A house with cast iron below the slab and a fifteen-year-old roof is a perfectly good purchase at the right price and an expensive mistake at the wrong one.
Questions people actually ask about Jersey Village
Is Jersey Village its own city, or part of Houston?
It is its own incorporated city. Jersey Village incorporated on 16 April 1956, sits entirely within Harris County, and runs its own police department, fire and EMS, and water and sewer utility across roughly 3.4 square miles. It is not inside Houston city limits — it is surrounded by the City of Houston and unincorporated Harris County. That distinction is not trivia: it changes which government sets your tax rate, issues your permits and enforces your building codes.
Is Jersey Village in Cypress?
No. Cypress is an unincorporated area of Harris County with no city government of its own. Jersey Village is an incorporated city. They are neighbours, not the same place, and they are governed completely differently — which is exactly why the permit path and the tax structure differ between them.
Which ZIP code is Jersey Village?
This is the question that costs people money, and the honest answer is that there isn't one. Addresses associated with Jersey Village fall across 77040, 77041, 77064 and 77065 — and for every one of those, the USPS primary city is Houston. “Jersey Village” is an acceptable alternate mailing name, not a primary one. So a mailing address that reads Jersey Village does not prove the property is inside the city limits, and an address that reads Houston does not prove it isn't. City limits are set by parcel boundary. Before you rely on it either way, confirm the parcel with the city and with HCAD.
What is the property tax rate in Jersey Village?
The City of Jersey Village adopted a rate of $0.8146 per $100 of valuation for tax year 2025 — $0.6565 maintenance and operations plus $0.1581 debt service — alongside a $72.6 million budget. That is only the city's slice. Your total bill also carries Harris County's combined rate, the school district, and smaller units such as the county Department of Education and Houston Community College. Add the published individual rates for those and the combined figure lands around $2.61 per $100, but treat that as arithmetic rather than a published number — pull the actual jurisdiction list for the specific address.
Does an incorporated city mean higher taxes than unincorporated Harris County?
Not automatically, and this is the comparison most buyers get wrong. Inside a city you pay a city tax rate. In many unincorporated areas nearby there is no city tax, but there is often a Municipal Utility District levy instead — and MUD rates vary enormously from one subdivision to the next. Jersey Village runs its own water and sewer utility funded through user fees, which is the structure you'd expect to see alongside a city tax. Rather than assume either way, get the jurisdiction list for the exact parcel from HCAD and add up what is actually on it. Two houses ten minutes apart can differ by four figures a year on this alone.
Does Jersey Village flood?
It has, repeatedly, and the city has spent heavily on it. The record: about 200 homes in Tropical Storm Frances in 1998, roughly 500 in Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, more than 200 in October 2002, and 238 in the Tax Day flood of 18 April 2016. Since then the city has completed an earth berm at Jersey Meadow Golf Course ($1.3 million, April 2022) and a street drainage project covering Wall, Carlsbad, Crawford, Capri and Tahoe ($5.7 million, May 2022), funded largely by FEMA, the Texas Infrastructure Resiliency Fund and the Texas General Land Office. Dozens of individual homes have been elevated under FEMA grant rounds, and Harris County Flood Control has been widening the White Oak Bayou E-100 channel to 30 feet through the city. None of that makes any individual house safe or unsafe — it means you check the parcel, not the reputation.
Did Jersey Village flood during Harvey?
This is the assumption almost everyone brings, and the record does not support it. Reporting from the period indicates White Oak Bayou came close but stayed within its banks through Harvey in August 2017, and Jersey Village residents were largely spared. The defining flood event for this city is the April 2016 Tax Day flood, not Harvey. If you are pricing a Jersey Village house on an assumption about 2017, you are pricing on the wrong year.
How do the draft 2026 FEMA maps affect Jersey Village?
Harris County's flood maps are being rebuilt for the first time since 2007, and the draft version expands the high-risk floodplain substantially countywide. What I have not seen is any published analysis specific to Jersey Village parcels, so I am not going to invent one. What I can do is pull the current and draft designation for a specific address and tell you what changed on that parcel. The full picture on the draft maps is here.
How old are the houses in Jersey Village?
Development began in the mid-1950s and the bulk of the stock went up through the 1960s, 70s and 80s — largely mid-century ranch. HAR's data for the area puts the median year built around 1974. That age band is the whole reason to have someone price the systems before you write an offer: it puts many of these houses squarely in the window for original cast iron sewer line, aluminium branch wiring, and a roof that is on its second or third life.
What are Jersey Village homes worth?
Census figures for 2020–2024 put the median home value at $346,900, with 45.4% of units owner-occupied. Current asking prices in the area have run roughly from the high $200,000s into the $600,000s depending on size, condition and whether the house has been through a real renovation or a cosmetic one. That last distinction is worth more than the list price tells you, and it is the thing I can actually read for you.
Nearby
Jersey Village borders the ZIP codes I work in most. 77065 — Steeplechase and Tower Oaks · 77064 · 77070 — Champions and Willowbrook · Cypress · Is Cypress sinking? · All northwest Houston guides
Ask about a specific Jersey Village address
Send me a street and I will tell you three things: whether the parcel is inside the city limits, what its flood designation is on the current and draft maps, and roughly what the house needs. Usually same day, and there is nothing to sign.