Riata Ranch Realtor — Your Local Guide to Riata Ranch, Houston TX 77095

Riata Ranch at a Glance

Figures are point-in-time and vary by section and address — verify before relying. Not legal or tax advice.

Where Riata Ranch Is

Riata Ranch fills the wedge of land on the east side of Barker Cypress Road between US-290 and the Canyon Lakes neighborhoods to the south. Its northern tip reaches up toward US-290, Cypress North Houston Road crosses the upper sections, and Riata Ranch Boulevard runs through the middle of the community. Stone Gate and Houston National Golf Club border it on the east. The mailing address is Houston, TX 77095, but the community is in unincorporated Harris County, inside the City of Houston’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, so there’s no City of Houston property tax.

Across Barker Cypress to the west are three separate subdivisions, Riata West, Barker Lake, and Alder Trails, with Towne Lake and its Boardwalk just beyond them.

Riata Ranch’s recorded plats as filed with Harris County, on the east side of Barker Cypress Road south of US-290. The outline is approximate — confirm any specific parcel at HCAD. Basemap © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The Feel of the Area

Riata Ranch is a settled, tree-lined neighborhood. Building started in 1996, and most of the homes that trade today went up in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The streets carry the ranch theme the name suggests, with names like Laguna Trail, Kiowa River, and Whispering Star, and the limestone columns, fountain, and flower beds at the entrances set the tone for the rest. Two of the 11 sections are gated; the rest sit on public streets.

The fountain and limestone column at one of the community entrances.

Mature shade trees in the community park.

Because the community is built out, every home for sale is a resale, and inventory depends on which owners decide to move.

Riata Ranch Homes for Sale: the Stock and the Market

The housing is detached single-family, one and two stories, mostly brick. Homes that sold over the past year were built from 1996 to 2004, with a median of 1999, and ran from about 1,400 to 4,000 square feet, with a median near 2,400 and three to six bedrooms. Lots run from about 6,300 to 13,100 square feet, with a median near 7,800, a little under a fifth of an acre.

I pulled the HAR MLS numbers for Riata Ranch on September 28, 2026. Over the previous 12 months, 28 homes closed at a median sale price of $346,000 ($336,825 after seller concessions), a median of $140.19 per square foot, and a median of 98.4 percent of list price, typically after about 24 days on the market. Sales ranged from $242,000 to $575,000. On September 28, 12 homes were active at a median list price of $362,450, with none pending. At a little over two closings a month, that works out to about five months of inventory, which I read as a balanced market: a well-priced home still sells in about a month, and buyers have room to negotiate on homes that need work. HAR’s subdivision page, a broader tax-roll view, puts the median market value at about $342,700.

With only two or three sales a month, a single large or heavily updated home can move the median. For pricing, I work from Riata Ranch’s own closed sales over the last six to twelve months, matched on square footage, lot size, updates, and whether the home backs to the park or a greenbelt, rather than the broader 77095 ZIP code median.

At 22 to 30 years old, most Riata Ranch homes have had a roof, an HVAC system, or a water heater replaced at least once. For buyers, the inspection and the seller’s disclosure show which of those are done; for sellers, receipts for them are worth gathering before we list.

Featured Riata Ranch Homes For Sale

$295,000 Active

10926 South Falls Terrace Houston, Texas

3 Beds 3 Baths 1,947 SqFt 0.145 Acres

$380,000 Active

11102 Bandit Trail Drive Houston, Texas

4 Beds 3 Baths 2,546 SqFt 0.137 Acres

$399,000 Active

17514 Whispering Star Court Houston, Texas

4 Beds 4 Baths 2,810 SqFt 0.185 Acres

$349,000 Active

10430 Sanibel Falls Court Houston, Texas

4 Beds 3 Baths 2,830 SqFt 0.191 Acres

$309,000 Active

10638 Desert Springs Circle Houston, Texas

3 Beds 2 Baths 1,580 SqFt 0.155 Acres

$346,000 Active

11411 Old Mission Road Houston, Texas

3 Beds 2 Baths 2,410 SqFt 0.168 Acres

See all Riata Ranch homes for sale →

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What It Costs to Own in Riata Ranch

Property taxes. Riata Ranch has one utility district, Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 196, and one school district, Cy-Fair ISD. The district’s operator lists Riata Ranch among the four subdivisions it serves, and the community is in the City of Houston’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, so there’s no city tax line. I checked each 2025 adopted rate against the Harris County Tax Office’s posting and the MUD’s tax collector in September 2026; together they come to about 2.32 percent of value:

On a $346,000 home that’s about $8,030 a year before exemptions. As an owner-occupied homestead, the state school exemption, Cy-Fair ISD’s 20 percent local exemption, and the county’s 20 percent exemption bring it to roughly $5,360 a year, assuming no homestead exemption on the college, fire, and MUD lines; I confirm each entity’s exemptions on the parcel before we run your payment. MUD No. 196’s 2025 rate of $0.48 per $100 splits evenly between maintenance and debt service, at $0.24 each. That puts Riata Ranch about a tenth of a point above Stone Gate next door and well below the roughly 3.2 to 3.7 percent common in the newer master-planned communities along this corridor. My guide to how MUD districts work in Texas explains why an established district’s rate tends to settle lower than a new one’s.

Since tax year 2025, Texas school districts exempt $140,000 of a homestead’s value ($200,000 for homeowners 65 or older or disabled), and Cy-Fair ISD adds its 20 percent local homestead exemption. MUD No. 196 offers a $20,000 exemption for owners 65 or older and another for disabled owners, but no general homestead exemption. My Texas homestead exemption guide walks through how those stack. Tax year 2026 rates are being adopted this fall, and Cy-Fair ISD’s 2026 rate depends on a voter-approval election on November 3, 2026, so I’ll update this table once the new rates are final. Confirm the parcel’s current rate at HCAD.org. This is general information, not tax advice.

HOA. Riata Ranch is governed by the Riata Ranch Homeowner’s Association, a mandatory association that Crest Management Company has managed since September 1, 2025. The association doesn’t publish its assessment online, so I confirm the current figure with Crest before we run your numbers. The dues fund the amenities described under Things to Do Nearby and the upkeep of the common areas.

Resale fees. Every Riata Ranch sale needs a resale certificate from the association, ordered through Crest’s resale certificate form. Crest doesn’t post its fee schedule, so the charges show up when the certificate is ordered, and the contract decides who pays each one. The association’s management certificate on file with the state is searchable at hoa.texas.gov.

Riata Ranch Schools

Riata Ranch is entirely within Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, which earned a B (86) in the Texas Education Agency’s 2026 ratings for the 2025–26 school year. The whole community follows one feeder pattern, and all three campuses earned an A:

Spillane’s zone feeds three high schools, and Riata Ranch’s side of it goes to Cypress Ranch. The assigned-schools block on Riata Ranch listings and Cy-Fair ISD’s residential code report agree on that path. Some older write-ups list Cypress Woods High School for Riata Ranch; the current code report assigns it to Cypress Ranch.

School assignments are set by the exact address and can change when the district redraws boundaries. Confirm a specific home with Cy-Fair ISD’s School Zone Locator, and check current campus ratings at txschools.gov, before relying on them. Ratings are reported as facts, not endorsements.

Getting Around & Commute

US-290 runs along the community’s northern edge, so most commutes start there: southeast toward Beltway 8, Loop 610, and downtown, or west to the Grand Parkway (TX-99). Barker Cypress Road on the west side is the main north-south route, south toward Tuckerton Road, FM 529, and eventually I-10, and Cypress North Houston Road runs east-west through the northern sections.

Plan on roughly 20 to 35 minutes to the Energy Corridor by Barker Cypress, Highway 6, or TX-99, 35 to 55 minutes to downtown at rush hour, 30 to 45 to the Galleria, and 40 to 60 to the Texas Medical Center. Bush Intercontinental takes about 35 to 50 minutes and Hobby 50 to 65. Those are typical ranges, so I suggest driving your own route at the hour you’d really be on it. METRO runs park-and-ride express service along the US-290 corridor; check the nearest lot and current routes at ridemetro.org.

Flood Risk — What to Check Before You Buy

Riata Ranch sits south of US-290 near the line between two large watersheds. Land on this side of the highway along Barker Cypress generally drains toward the Addicks Reservoir watershed, while Cypress Creek’s watershed lies north of US-290. The community is miles upstream of the reservoir pool itself; the government-controlled flooding behind the dams in Hurricane Harvey is a separate issue from rainfall flooding and didn’t reach this far upstream. I didn’t find a Riata Ranch-specific record of homes flooding in Harvey in 2017 or the April 2016 Tax Day storm, but the absence of a record isn’t a guarantee, and both storms caused widespread street flooding across northwest Harris County.

Flood designation is set lot by lot. For any home you’re serious about, pull the current FEMA zone at the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, ask for the seller’s disclosure of flood history and any insurance claims, and request an elevation certificate if one exists. Harris County Flood Control District’s Find Your Watershed tool at hcfcd.org shows which watershed a parcel drains to.

Things to Do Nearby

Inside the community, the community park is the center of things. The association’s amenities include the pool and splash pad, tennis courts, a covered pavilion with a barbecue hut you can reserve, playgrounds, and three marked walking trails: Riata Park at 0.6 mile, Riata Trails at 0.9 mile, and Riata Creek at 1.3 miles. The tennis courts take a key card from the association.

The splash pad at the community park.

The covered pavilion, which residents can reserve.

One of the park’s playgrounds.

The sand volleyball court, with the tennis courts beyond the fence.

Just outside it:

• Golf: Houston National Golf Club, the public 18-hole course in Stone Gate, is just east of the community.
• Parks: Telge Park, 111 wooded acres on Cypress Creek north of US-290, and Bear Creek Pioneers Park, 2,154 acres inside Addicks Reservoir off Clay Road to the south.
• Dining and shopping: The Boardwalk at Towne Lake for lakeside restaurants a few minutes west, and Houston Premium Outlets at US-290 and the Grand Parkway.
• Everyday errands: grocery-anchored centers and restaurants along Barker Cypress Road, US-290, and Highway 6.

Is Riata Ranch the Right Fit?

The case for Riata Ranch is value in an established Cy-Fair ISD community. The median sale price sits below $350,000, the campuses from elementary through high school all earned an A in 2026, the combined tax rate is about 2.32 percent, and the community park puts a pool, splash pad, tennis, and trails within walking distance for most of the 11 sections. US-290 is at the north end, and Towne Lake’s restaurants are a few minutes west.

On the planning side, the homes are 22 to 30 years old, so give the inspection real attention and budget for roofs, HVAC, and water heaters as they come due. The HOA doesn’t publish its dues, so get the current figure early. The MUD tax arrives on a separate bill, so make sure your escrow covers all three bills. And with about a dozen homes on the market at a time, the right floor plan may take a few weeks to appear.

If you’re comparing, the natural alternatives are Stone Gate next door on the golf course, Coles Crossing in the same middle-school zone, Towne Lake to the west if you want newer homes on a large lake, and Copperfield a few miles southeast. I’m glad to walk you through how they compare on price, taxes, and schools.

Work With a Riata Ranch Realtor

The detail I walk every Riata Ranch buyer through is the tax bill. The MUD No. 196 share, about a fifth of the total rate, is billed on its own by Utility Tax Service, apart from the Harris County bill and Cy-Fair ISD’s school-tax bill, so a buyer who adds up the county and school bills and misses the third one undercounts the yearly tax by about a fifth. HAR’s tax table for the subdivision still showed the prior year’s school rate, 1.0869 instead of the adopted 1.0669, when I rechecked it on September 28, which is why I build the 2.32 percent stack line by line from the county’s posting and the MUD’s own collector. The same care goes into the address: Riata West, Barker Lake, and Alder Trails across Barker Cypress share the water district and elementary school, but not the Riata Ranch plat, the association, or the MLS search, and two sections of Riata Ranch are gated. On every home I show here, I confirm the plat, the school zone, and the section before we tour.

With about five months of inventory, buyers here have room to negotiate, and on homes this age the inspection is where most of that negotiating happens. One buyer put it this way: “He was great helping me get into the right house, making sure I didn’t pay too much, and he took care of every step quickly to make the whole process easy on me.” — Jon, buyer.

I’m Kevan Pewitt, a REALTOR® and the broker-owner of Houston Prime Realty. I’ve held my Texas real estate broker’s license since 1989, and I hold the Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) designation. My HAR client surveys average 5.0 across 231 verified post-closing reviews, and Texas Monthly has named me a Five Star Professional for 11 years. Riata Ranch is part of my work as a Houston REALTOR® in the Cy-Fair area, which lets me price a Riata Ranch home against Stone Gate, Coles Crossing, and Towne Lake as well as against its own recent sales.

Call or text me directly at 281-500-7077. If you’re selling, I’ll pull your recent Riata Ranch comps before we talk price.

Setting Up Utilities in Riata Ranch

Riata Ranch keeps the water side simple: the whole community sits inside one water district, and that district handles water, sewer, and trash pickup.

Water, sewer, and trash. Riata Ranch is served by Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 196, which also serves Riata West, Barker Lake, and Alder Trails. The district is operated by Water District Management (WDM), and its district page links to online bill pay and the trash schedule. You start service with WDM’s online application; plan on your closing disclosure (or lease), a photo ID, and a W-9. Standard processing takes about two business days, so apply before closing. Trash and recycling come through the district, collected by Best Trash (best-trash.com), with trash twice a week and recycling once a week on the days posted in the district’s trash notice. The MUD’s share of your property tax is assessed and collected by Utility Tax Service (utilitytaxservice.com), separately from Harris County’s bill.

Electricity, which you choose. Riata Ranch is in the deregulated Texas market, so you pick your own retail electric provider and can switch at the end of any contract. The poles, wires, and meter belong to CenterPoint Energy (centerpointenergy.com), which is who you call about an outage or a downed line whatever company’s name is on your bill. You compare and sign up for a plan at the state’s official marketplace, PowerToChoose.org. Have your address or ESI-ID ready, and set it up before closing so the power is in your name the day you get keys.

Natural gas. Residential gas in Riata Ranch comes from CenterPoint Energy and is regulated, so there’s nothing to shop; you open an account. Confirm the house you’re buying has a gas connection first.

Internet and TV. Cable from Xfinity is the widely available default in ZIP 77095, and AT&T offers fiber on many, but not all, streets. T-Mobile and Verizon 5G home internet and satellite service from Starlink, Viasat, and HughesNet are other options depending on the address. Fiber varies block to block, so check the exact address on the FCC National Broadband Map (broadbandmap.fcc.gov) before you count on it.

The homeowners association. The community is governed by the Riata Ranch Homeowner’s Association, managed by Crest Management Company since September 2025. The community website, riataranch.net, posts amenity details and pool hours; Crest’s site, crest-management.com, is where you pay assessments, reach the homeowner portal, and request pool tags, tennis key cards, and exterior-modification approval. If an older link on the community site points you to the previous management company, go through Crest instead. Resale certificates are ordered through Crest, and the association’s management certificate is searchable at hoa.texas.gov.

After you close. File your homestead exemption with the Harris Central Appraisal District at hcad.org, online or with HCAD’s mobile app. Filing is free, and you never need to pay a third party to do it. Property taxes arrive as three separate bills: Harris County’s from the Harris County Tax Office, Cy-Fair ISD’s school tax from the district’s own tax office, and the MUD No. 196 portion from Utility Tax Service.

Providers, districts, and coverage vary by address and change over time — verify for your specific home before relying on any of the above. Verified September 27, 2026. Not legal or tax advice.

Quick Answers

Is Riata Ranch in Houston or Cypress, and what ZIP code and county is it in?

Both names apply. Riata Ranch is in ZIP 77095 in unincorporated Harris County, on the east side of Barker Cypress Road just south of US-290, in the Cypress area. The mailing city for 77095 is Houston, but the community is outside Houston’s city limits, so there’s no City of Houston property tax. Riata West, across Barker Cypress, is a separate subdivision. Confirm the recorded plat name on the HCAD parcel for any specific home.

What schools serve Riata Ranch?

Cy-Fair ISD. The community is zoned to Woodard Elementary (A, 92), Spillane Middle School (A, 94), and Cypress Ranch High School (A, 94) in TEA’s 2026 ratings, and the whole community follows that one path. Older write-ups sometimes list Cypress Woods High School; Cypress Ranch is the current assignment. Confirm a specific address on Cy-Fair ISD’s School Zone Locator.

Are Riata Ranch property taxes higher than the rest of Cypress and northwest Houston?

Generally lower than the newer master-planned communities nearby. On 2025 adopted rates, Riata Ranch’s combined rate is about 2.32 percent: Cy-Fair ISD 1.0669, Harris County entities 0.6289, Harris County MUD No. 196 at 0.48, Lone Star College 0.106, and ESD 9 at 0.0388, per $100, with no City of Houston tax. Newer master plans along this corridor commonly run about 3.2 to 3.7 percent. On a $346,000 home that’s about $8,030 a year before exemptions and roughly $5,360 as a homestead. Confirm the parcel’s rate at HCAD.org, since 2026 rates are being adopted this fall.

What MUD serves Riata Ranch, and who provides water and trash?

Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 196 serves Riata Ranch, Riata West, Barker Lake, and Alder Trails, at a 2025 rate of $0.48 per $100 (split $0.24 maintenance and $0.24 debt service). Water District Management operates the district and bills water and sewer, Best Trash collects trash and recycling through the district, and Utility Tax Service collects the MUD tax on a separate bill. Confirm service details for a specific address with the district.

What’s the typical home price in Riata Ranch?

Over the 12 months ending September 28, 2026, 28 Riata Ranch homes sold at a median of $346,000, or about $140 per square foot, per HAR MLS, with sales from $242,000 to $575,000 and a median of about 24 days on the market. On September 28, 2026, 12 homes were active from $253,000 to $489,000. Ask me for the most recent Riata Ranch sales before pricing a specific home.

What are the Riata Ranch HOA dues, and what does a seller pay at closing?

The Riata Ranch Homeowner’s Association is mandatory and managed by Crest Management Company. The association doesn’t publish its dues or resale fees online, so the current assessment and the resale certificate charges come from Crest when the certificate is ordered, and the contract decides who pays each fee. Confirm the current figures on the resale certificate for the specific home.

What amenities does Riata Ranch have?

The association maintains a pool with a splash pad, tennis courts, a reservable pavilion and barbecue hut, playgrounds, and three marked walking trails of 0.6, 0.9, and 1.3 miles. Two of the 11 sections are gated. Confirm access rules and pool-season hours with the association.

Is Riata Ranch in a flood zone?

It varies by property. Riata Ranch is south of US-290 in the area that generally drains toward the Addicks Reservoir watershed, well upstream of the reservoir pool. I didn’t find a Riata Ranch-specific record of homes flooding in Harvey or the 2016 Tax Day storm, which isn’t a guarantee. Check the exact address at the FEMA Flood Map Service Center and ask for the seller’s disclosure of any flood history or claims.

Is there new construction in Riata Ranch?

No. Riata Ranch is built out, with construction that began in 1996, so every sale is a resale. The homes that sold in the past year were built from 1996 to 2004. Budget for systems as they reach replacement age and confirm their condition in the inspection.

Who is a good real estate agent for Riata Ranch?

Look for someone who checks this community at the source: the recorded plat that separates Riata Ranch from Riata West, the Woodard–Spillane–Cypress Ranch path, the separate MUD No. 196 tax bill, the gated sections, and the flood map for the exact lot. I’m Kevan Pewitt, a REALTOR® and the broker-owner of Houston Prime Realty, licensed as a Texas broker since 1989; my HAR client surveys average 5.0 across 231 verified reviews. My guide on how to choose a Realtor covers what to ask any real estate agent. We’ll agree on how I represent you and how that’s paid up front, in writing, and my post on how real estate buyer’s agents get paid in Texas explains the options. Call or text 281-500-7077.

Questions About Riata Ranch? Send Me a Note

Have a question about a specific section, the school zone for an address, a gated street, or what a home’s real monthly number would be once all three tax bills and the dues are in it? Send me a message and I’ll get back to you personally.