- Appraisal district
- Central Appraisal District of Johnson County, Cleburne, created effective January 1, 1980
- Cities and towns
- Cleburne, Burleson, Joshua, Alvarado, Godley, Keene, Grandview, Rio Vista, Venus
- Reappraisal cycle
- Adopted plan moved most property from annual to a three-year reappraisal cycle
- Protest deadline
- May 15, or 30 days after the notice of appraised value is delivered, whichever is later
- Recurring appraisal issue
- Manufactured home title status, and rural acreage with few comparable sales
- Property types I appraise
- One-to-four unit residential and residential land only
What the Johnson County market actually did, 2023–2026
Measured from 16,361 Johnson County listings on 11,536 addresses — every residential listing in the MLS over three years, whether it sold or not. Johnson is the busiest county in this part of North Texas: 3,355 closings in the last twelve months, more than Parker, more than twice Hood.
- Busiest and cheapest. 3,355 closings in twelve months at $171 per foot — the lowest price per foot of any county around Fort Worth.
- Volume up 12%, price per foot down 4.5%. Sellers are getting less per square foot than they did two years ago.
- 34.2% of listings failed. But only 18.4% of houses never sold — the best outcome of any county in this research.
- A production builder listed the same house 2.19 times on average. Everyone else, 1.24. That single habit distorts every failure statistic published about this county.
- New construction sells best. Houses built 2023 or later failed 14.8% of the time, against 21.6% for 2000–2022.
- Where it genuinely goes wrong: above $750,000 and on acreage. 39.1% and 35.0% of those houses never sold.
| 12 months ending | Sold | Listings that failed | Rate | Median price | $/sqft | CDOM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2024 | 3,002 | 1,370 | 31.3% | $344,950 | $179 | 50 |
| October 2025 | 3,346 | 1,923 | 36.5% | $348,755 | $176 | 67 |
| October 2026 | 3,355 | 1,759 | 34.4% | $329,000 | $171 | 65 |
More sales, taking longer, at a lower price per foot each year. With 39.8% of closings built in 2023 or later, Johnson is absorbing an enormous amount of new supply, and resale sellers are competing against builders who can buy down a rate.
Two ways to count a failure, and here it matters more than anywhere
Of 14,755 listings that reached an outcome, 5,052 ended without a sale — 34.2%. Those listings sat on only 11,536 distinct addresses, 19.0% of which were listed more than once.
| Measure | Failed | Of | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listings that ended without a sale | 5,052 | 14,755 listings | 34.2% |
| Houses that never sold at all | 2,118 | 11,536 addresses | 18.4% |
2,040 of the 5,052 failed listings — 40% — were at an address that sold under a different listing.
At 18.4%, Johnson County houses sell more reliably than anywhere else measured in this research: Hood 23.6%, Parker 22.2%, Erath 27.0%, Wise 26.4%. Reading only the listing-level number would have told you the opposite story about which county works.
The builders are doing something that breaks the statistics
Listings held by a production builder’s own brokerage failed 65.5% of the time. The same builders’ houses never sold only 24.3% of the time.
The mechanism is visible in one number. A production builder put an average of 2.19 listings on each address. Everyone else averaged 1.24. A spec house goes on the market, the listing runs its term, it expires, a fresh listing goes up with a new number. Nothing happened to the house. Three listings and one sale is a 67% listing failure rate and a 0% property failure rate.
Two places in the county show what that does to a published figure:
| Place | Listings | Addresses | Listings that failed | Houses that never sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cresson (Johnson County portion) | 482 | 145 | 80.9% | 36.6% |
| Venus | 1,017 | 641 | 51.1% | 24.2% |
Cresson Estates carried 482 listings on 145 addresses — one address appeared eighteen times. An 81% failure rate there is not a market collapse. It is a builder’s listing practice.
If you are told Venus has a 51% failure rate, you will discount a Venus property accordingly. The honest number is 24.2%, and it is still the second-weakest in the county — but it is half of what the listing count implies. Any analysis of a new-construction submarket that does not group listings by address will be wrong in the same direction every time.
Where in Johnson County
| City | Addresses | Listings that failed | Houses that never sold | Median sold | CDOM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mansfield | 1,057 | 27.4% | 15.5% | $550,000 | 82 |
| Joshua | 1,083 | 29.7% | 15.7% | $360,000 | 59 |
| Burleson | 2,598 | 29.8% | 16.4% | $368,808 | 45 |
| Godley | 1,205 | 33.8% | 17.8% | $415,000 | 96 |
| Alvarado | 1,107 | 32.1% | 18.7% | $319,579 | 56 |
| Keene | 335 | 27.7% | 19.4% | $260,999 | 70 |
| Cleburne | 2,736 | 33.1% | 19.6% | $285,588 | 57 |
| Grandview | 373 | 33.1% | 20.4% | $349,990 | 70 |
| Venus | 641 | 51.1% | 24.2% | $307,900 | 48 |
| Rio Vista | 127 | 39.1% | 26.8% | $325,000 | 50 |
| Cresson | 145 | 80.9% | 36.6% | $299,990 | 80 |
Burleson is the county’s workhorse: 2,598 addresses, 16.4% of them never selling, and a median 45 days to contract — the fastest market of any size in this research. Mansfield does marginally better on failure at 15.5% but takes nearly twice as long, which is what a $550,000 median buys you.
The useful comparison is Burleson against Cleburne. Similar size, eight miles apart, and Cleburne houses fail 19.6% against Burleson’s 16.4% at an $83,000 lower median. Those are different markets and they should not be appraised off each other without adjustment.
Price tier and acreage: where it genuinely fails
Above $750,000, 39.1% of Johnson County houses never sold. It is the only tier where the property rate stays near the listing rate, which tells you those failures are real rather than administrative. Below $250,000 is the most liquid part of the market at 16.9% — the reverse of Hood County, where the cheapest tier is among the weakest.
Land is the other place it breaks down:
| Lot size | Addresses | Houses that never sold | Median sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1/5 acre | 5,342 | 17.8% | $323,245 |
| 1/5 to 1/3 acre | 2,186 | 16.5% | $326,240 |
| 1/3 to 1 acre | 1,440 | 16.7% | $375,000 |
| 1 to 5 acres | 2,023 | 20.2% | $430,000 |
| 5 acres and up | 554 | 35.0% | $620,000 |
And properties classified Farm/Ranch failed 50.0% of the time — half of them never sold at all.
These lot figures come from the MLS square-footage field, not the acreage field. In Johnson County 13.2% of listings have an acreage field that disagrees with the square-foot field, usually because the square-foot figure was typed into it. That is twice the error rate in neighbouring Hood County. Anyone computing Johnson County lot statistics without reconciling the two fields will produce numbers that are wrong in a direction they cannot see.
What this means if you own a house here
Johnson County works. Fewer than one house in five fails to sell, the best rate anywhere in this research, and Burleson contracts in a median 45 days. If you have read that a third of listings fail here, that number counts listings and not houses.
Do not price off the new-construction comparables without thinking. With 39.8% of closings built since 2023, a lot of what shows up as a comparable sale is a builder transaction carrying incentives, rate buydowns and concessions that do not appear in the sale price. That is a measurable gap, not a theoretical one.
If you are above $750,000 or on more than five acres, you are in the part of this county that does not clear. 39.1% and 35.0% never sold. Those are also the segments with the thinnest comparable evidence, which is the combination where a considered opinion of value before the price is set is worth the most.
Cleburne and Burleson are not interchangeable. Neither are Venus and Alvarado, eight miles apart with a seven-point gap in whether the house ever sells.
A county pulled in two directions
The northern edge of Johnson County has been absorbing growth from Fort Worth for years, and the opening of the Chisholm Trail Parkway in 2014 accelerated it by shortening the drive from Cleburne and Burleson into the city. Burleson, Joshua, Alvarado and Godley have all taken substantial new subdivision construction as a result, and along the I-35W corridor the housing looks much like north Tarrant County suburban product.
Cleburne, the county seat, is a different market. It has a genuine older core with pre-1940 housing near downtown from its railroad era, mid-century neighborhoods, and newer development pushing outward. Grandview, Rio Vista, Keene, Venus and the smaller communities each have their own small and sparsely traded markets.
West and south of those, the county is rural: acreage tracts, working land, scattered farmsteads, manufactured homes on owned land, and a growing amount of metal-frame barndominium-style construction. Those properties do not analyze like subdivision houses and should not be appraised as though they do.
Manufactured homes: the title question comes first
Manufactured housing is a significant part of the residential stock in Johnson County, and it is where I see more avoidable errors than anywhere else in this market.
The threshold question is whether the home is real property or personal property. A manufactured home is titled through the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, and it does not automatically become real property when it is set on land someone owns. There has to be a proper election and filing to convert it, and the department's Statement of Ownership record is where that shows. If the home is still titled as personal property, an appraisal of the real estate is appraising the land and site improvements, not the house sitting on it, and most conventional financing will not work.
Beyond title, I record HUD label and data plate information, the manufacturer, model year, dimensions, whether it is single or multi-section, foundation and anchoring, and whether the towing hitch, axles and wheels have been removed. I also look at whether additions such as carports, porches or room additions were built to a standard that lets them be included, because they frequently were not.
The Central Appraisal District of Johnson County
The Central Appraisal District of Johnson County, based in Cleburne, was created effective January 1, 1980 and serves dozens of taxing units across the county.
The district divides the county into a set of market areas that are further broken into submarket areas, and it distinguishes urban single-family stock from rural property, which it appraises on a market modified cost basis. That distinction is worth understanding when you read your notice, because a rural property's value is built up differently from a subdivision house's.
One thing that makes Johnson County unusual: the district's adopted reappraisal plan moved the reappraisal cycle from annual to every three years for most residential property, with certain categories still reviewed annually. A property owner who is used to a new value in the mail every spring may not get one, which changes how and when a protest is worth filing.
The general Texas protest deadline still applies: May 15, or 30 days after the notice of appraised value is delivered, whichever is later. Owners may request an informal meeting before the formal Appraisal Review Board hearing, and the ARB must give at least 15 days written notice of the hearing.
Acreage, ag valuation and rural services
Agricultural valuation is common on Johnson County land and works the same way it does elsewhere in Texas: a productivity-based tax valuation, not a market value statement, with rollback exposure when the use changes. If a homesite is being carved out of a larger ag tract, that exposure is part of what the buyer is taking on and it belongs in the analysis.
Rural properties here are typically on private wells or rural water supply corporation service, and on on-site sewage facilities permitted under Texas Commission on Environmental Quality rules rather than municipal sewer. Conventional versus aerobic system, system age, and whether the permit record matches what is installed all matter to cost and marketability.
Texas counties do not have general zoning authority, so unincorporated land is governed by recorded deed restrictions, plat notes and state regulation rather than by a zoning map. A restricted rural subdivision tract and an unrestricted tract on the same road are different products, and I read what actually applies to the subject.
Where the comparable work gets hard
The new subdivision side of Johnson County has the opposite problem from the rural side. In a recently built neighborhood in Burleson or Godley, I may have twenty nearly identical sales and the difficult question becomes builder incentives, lot premiums, elevation and option packages, and whether recorded sale prices reflect concessions that were not disclosed.
On the rural side the challenge is scarcity. A house on twelve acres with a shop building may have no true match within ten miles, and I will search across the county and into Tarrant, Hill, Ellis, Bosque or Somervell as the property requires, then explain each extension.
Floodplain along the Nolan River, Chambers Creek and the smaller drainages varies considerably, and mapped hazard on a large rural tract may cover part of the land without touching the improvements. I check the current effective FEMA mapping for the parcel and describe what portion is affected.
Scope and how I work
I appraise one-to-four unit residential property and residential land only, including houses on acreage, manufactured homes that are real property, and vacant residential and rural residential tracts. I do not take commercial assignments, apartment properties of five units or more, or subdivision development analysis anywhere.
Assignment types include purchase and refinance lending, pre-listing and pre-purchase valuation, estate and date-of-death appraisals, trust and gifting work, divorce and property settlement, and appraisal district protest support.
My fee is quoted before I start and does not depend on the value I report or on any outcome. Rural and acreage assignments cost more and take longer than subdivision houses, and I say so when I quote. Terrence Bilodeau, Texas Certified Residential Appraiser #1360232-CR, (817) 903-4509. Fees start at $500 for a standard single-family home, and turnaround is generally 5 to 7 business days from inspection.
Estate appraisal
“I worked with Terrence after my mother passed away and I needed an estate appraisal on her home. I was only going to be in town for a limited amount of time, and Terrence went out of his way to accommodate me on short notice. The property was not an easy one to value because it was an older home with an unusual floor plan and there were limited comparable sales in the area.”Esther Murray · Google review
Common questions
Can you appraise a manufactured home on my land?
Yes, when the home is real property. That requires a proper election and filing so the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs record reflects it. If the home is still titled as personal property, an appraisal of the real estate does not include the home, and that generally blocks conventional financing. I check the record before the inspection.
Why didn't I get a new value notice this year?
The district's adopted reappraisal plan moved most property to a three-year cycle rather than annual reappraisal, with some categories still reviewed every year. That changes when a protest is worth filing, but the deadline rules are unchanged when you do receive a notice.
Do you appraise barndominiums?
Yes, when the property is one-to-four unit residential. Metal-frame residential construction requires care in quality rating and in finding comparable sales of similar construction rather than adjusting a conventional stick-built house to fit.
Part of my land is in the floodplain. How is that handled?
I check the current effective FEMA mapping for the parcel and describe what portion is affected. On a large rural tract, mapped hazard often covers pasture without touching the improvements, which is very different from a floodplain designation on a subdivision lot.
How far will you search for comparable sales?
As far as the property requires. On rural acreage that may mean the whole county and into Tarrant, Hill, Ellis, Bosque or Somervell. I state the search parameters and explain every extension in the report.
What percentage of houses sell in Johnson County?
It depends whether you count listings or houses. Across the three years to October 2026, 34.2% of resolved Johnson County listings ended without a sale — 5,052 of 14,755. But those listings sat on 11,536 distinct addresses, 19.0% of which were listed more than once, and only 18.4% of those addresses never sold at all. That is the strongest result of any county around Fort Worth: Hood 23.6%, Parker 22.2%, Wise 26.4%, Erath 27.0%. Of the Johnson listings that failed, 40% were at an address that sold under a different listing.
Why do Venus and Cresson have such high failure rates?
Mostly because production builders relist the same houses. In the Johnson County portion of Cresson, 482 listings covered only 145 addresses, with one address appearing eighteen times; the listing failure rate is 80.9% but the share of houses that never sold is 36.6%. In Venus, 1,017 listings covered 641 addresses, giving 51.1% against 24.2%. Listings held by a production builder's own brokerage averaged 2.19 per address, against 1.24 for everyone else. Both places are genuinely weaker than the county average, but by roughly half what the listing counts suggest.
Is Burleson a good market to sell in?
On this data it is the strongest market of any size in the county. Over three years, 16.4% of Burleson addresses never sold, against 19.6% in Cleburne and 18.4% county-wide, and the median Burleson sale went under contract in 45 days — the fastest of any sizeable market in this research. Mansfield shows a marginally lower failure rate at 15.5% but takes a median 82 days at a $550,000 median price.
- Source: North Texas Real Estate Information Systems (NTREIS) residential listing records for Johnson County, 17 October 2023 to 15 October 2026. 16,361 listings on 11,536 addresses, of which 14,755 listings resolved — 9,703 sold and 5,052 expired, cancelled or withdrawn. Listings still active at the end of the period are excluded from failure rates.
- Two failure measures are reported. The listing rate is the share of resolved listings that came off the market without selling. The property rate groups listings by street address and counts an address as sold if any of its listings closed; 19.0% of addresses carried more than one listing. Sold listings are counted on close date and unsold listings on status-change date, so both sides of every rate cover the same span.
- Address grouping uses street number, name, suffix, unit and city as recorded in the MLS. Addresses entered inconsistently across listings would be counted as separate properties, which would push the property rate up, not down.
- “Production builder” means the listing office name matches a national or regional homebuilder’s own brokerage. Builder-affiliated listings held through independent brokerages are counted with everyone else, so the contrast shown is conservative.
- Lot sizes are derived from the MLS square-footage field rather than the acreage field; 13.2% of Johnson County listings carry an acreage field that disagrees with it.
- City and tier figures are reported where at least 100 addresses resolved. Figures are aggregate; no individual listing, address, price or client is identified.
Market statistics describe past transactions in aggregate and are not an opinion of value for any particular property. Nothing here is an appraisal. Data supplied by NTREIS and believed reliable but not guaranteed; NTREIS does not warrant it and it may not reflect all market activity. Figures as at the date of publication.