The Highlands PID Didn't Disappear. It Just Changed Where It Hides.

Ask a longtime Highlands homeowner how they used to explain the neighborhood's public improvement district to a curious buyer, and most describe the same habit: pull up the water bill. For nearly a decade, that was the fastest way to size up what a Highlands property actually cost to carry, because the annual assessment that funded the district's share of fire service showed up as a monthly surcharge right there next to the usage charge, plain and itemized.

That habit stopped working last fall, and I've watched more than one agent walk a buyer through a Highlands listing this year still relying on it.

What Actually Moved on October 1, 2025

Trophy Club Municipal Utility District No. 1 expanded its service boundaries to match the area it actually serves, which now covers all of Trophy Club, including the Highlands PID, and a portion of Westlake. Before the expansion, homeowners inside the PID paid for fire protection two different ways depending on which side of the district line they sat on: some paid through the MUD's property tax, others paid through a standalone PID emergency services assessment billed on the water statement. As of October 1, 2025, that split ended. Every resident now pays for fire service through the same mechanism, the MUD's ad valorem property tax, collected alongside the rest of the annual tax bill rather than itemized on a utility statement.

The town's own materials are direct about the mechanics: residents pay one or the other, never both, and the change first showed up on 2025 tax year bills due by January 31, 2026. For homes valued above the PID's average, the shift meant a slightly higher annual amount. For homes valued below average, it meant a slightly lower one, because the old PID assessment was a flat per-lot figure and the new one scales with the home's appraised value, the same as any other property tax line.

The Assessment That Never Left

Here's the part that gets lost when people hear "the PID surcharge went away." Only one of the Highlands PID's two assessments moved into the MUD tax. The other is still exactly where it's always been.

The Highlands at Trophy Club was created in 2007 as a 697-acre, roughly 1,474-unit planned development, with the PID itself covering about 609 of those acres and an estimated 1,409 residential lots. To build the streets, drainage and utilities for that footprint, the district issued $27.5 million in special assessment revenue bonds that same year. That fixed infrastructure assessment, the one tied to lot size rather than home value, was never part of the boundary expansion. It's still a separate line, still collected through Denton County, still payable in a lump sum at any time through the district's assessment administrator, and still on track to keep collecting for as long as those 2007 bonds remain outstanding, which for a district-financed bond of this type typically runs somewhere in the range of twenty to forty years from issuance.

Put plainly: the water-bill line disappeared. The bond-repayment obligation behind it did not. It just lives on the property tax statement now instead of the utility statement, which makes it easier to overlook if you're not looking for it in the right place.

Why Two Otherwise Identical Listings Can Carry Different Costs

This matters more than it might sound, because the two assessments now respond to completely different inputs. The infrastructure assessment is fixed to the lot itself, so it's identical whether the house on that lot is a modest single story or a recent rebuild with a full renovation. The fire service portion is now tied to appraised value, so a home that's been significantly updated or expanded will carry a noticeably higher share of that cost than a comparable lot with an unrenovated house, even if the two homes sit across the street from each other.

That's a real pricing variable, not a rounding error, and it's the kind of thing a quick Zillow-style estimate has no way of capturing because it depends on which parcel you're standing on and what the county has that parcel appraised at this year.

The timing makes this worth paying attention to right now specifically. Freddie Mac's survey put the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 6.66 percent as of the end of July 2026, and Dallas-Fort Worth nonfarm employment was still up 1.3 percent year over year as of June 2026 according to federal labor data. Financing remains expensive enough that buyers are running tighter monthly budgets than they were two or three years ago, and a few hundred dollars a year in assessment differences between two Highlands lots is exactly the kind of detail that shows up in a debt-to-income calculation before it shows up in a listing photo.

The Paperwork Still Has to Say the Quiet Part Out Loud

Texas law hasn't relaxed on any of this. Property Code Section 5.014(A) still requires a specific written notice to buyers before they sign a contract on a home inside a PID, and Trophy Club maintains its own template of that notice for exactly this development. The current TREC contract forms require the same disclosure as a standalone addendum, and the consequence for skipping it isn't a formality: a buyer who wasn't given proper notice before signing can walk away from the contract, and in some cases can pursue damages after closing.

A seller's disclosure that says "there's a PID" isn't sufficient on its own. What actually satisfies the requirement is the dollar amount the buyer will owe, what the assessment funds, how long it runs, and where to find the underlying service and assessment plan. Since the fire service portion moved off the water bill, the number a listing agent needs to hand a buyer now has to be pulled from two different places rather than one: the county tax record for the fire service share, and the PID's own assessment roll for the fixed infrastructure share.

A few things worth confirming before either side signs anything:

• Whether the specific lot's fixed infrastructure assessment has been paid off early by a prior owner, which happens occasionally and changes what a buyer inherits
• Whether the most recent county appraisal reflects any renovation or addition, since that appraisal now drives the fire service portion of the bill
• Whether the seller's disclosure packet includes the actual PID service and assessment plan, not just a mention that a PID exists

What This Means If You're Buying or Selling in the Highlands Right Now

For sellers, the practical shift is about pricing consistency. Comparing your home to a similar Highlands sale from two years ago without adjusting for this billing change risks pricing against a cost structure that no longer exists. For buyers, the shift means the old shortcut of glancing at a seller's utility bill to spot-check the assessment no longer tells the whole story, and a buyer's agent who's still using that shortcut is working from an outdated map of the neighborhood's own paperwork.

None of this makes the Highlands a less desirable place to buy. It makes it a neighborhood where the fine print moved, and where the agents who noticed are the ones giving their clients an accurate number instead of a familiar one.

A Few Questions Worth Asking

Does every home in Trophy Club sit inside this PID? No. The PID covers the Highlands development specifically, roughly 609 of its 697 acres. Homes elsewhere in Trophy Club are not subject to these assessments.

Is the fixed infrastructure assessment the same for every lot? No. It's allocated based on lot size, so larger parcels carry a larger share of the original bond repayment than smaller ones.

Can a buyer just pay off the assessment at closing to make it go away? The fixed infrastructure assessment can be paid in full at any time through the district's assessment administrator. Whether that happens at closing is a negotiable point between buyer and seller, not something either side is required to do.

Is a PID the same thing as a MUD? No, and the distinction matters here specifically. A MUD is an ongoing taxing authority that funds utility and, in this case, fire services indefinitely. A PID is an assessment tied to a defined bond and improvement plan with an eventual end date. The Highlands has both, which is exactly why last fall's change only touched one of them.

If you're evaluating a purchase or a sale inside the Highlands, or anywhere else in Trophy Club, Southlake, Westlake or the surrounding DFW communities, the fine print is exactly the kind of thing worth walking through before you write or accept an offer. Sherri Murphy and The Ultimate Real Estate Group spend a lot of time in this kind of detail so our clients don't have to. Let's Connect.