Living in Belton, Texas: A Local Guide

The short version: Belton is the Bell County seat on Interstate 35, roughly 60 miles north of Austin and 8 miles from Temple — a city of 23,054 in the 2020 Census (an estimated 25,964 by 2025) that lives in the gravity of three bigger things: Fort Hood about 20 miles west, Temple’s medical-and-rail economy next door, and two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lakes at its edges. Homes.com’s trailing-12-month data puts the median sale price at $322,442. The three things buyers most often get wrong here: the Army post’s name (it is Fort Hood again, not Fort Cavazos), Belton ISD’s state rating (a B, not the A in some realty tables), and how Three Creeks is taxed (a MUD, not the city). All three are covered below, with sources — and the full numbers are in our Belton real estate fact page.

The city: county seat on the I-35 corridor

Belton was first settled in 1850 as Nolanville and renamed in 1851, when it became the county seat of newly created Bell County. It sits where the Blackland Prairie meets the Edwards Plateau: Nolan Creek runs through the center of the city and the Leon River borders it to the northeast, across from Temple. Belton is part of the Killeen–Temple metropolitan area, which counted 475,367 people in the 2020 Census.

The corridor defines the daily geometry. Austin is 60 miles south on I-35; Waco is about 41–42 miles north; Temple — the region’s hospital and railroad town — is roughly 8 miles east, close enough that the two cities now abut at the Leon River. Belton itself covers about 21 square miles (ZIP 76513, area code 254), and its population has grown about 12.7% since the 2020 Census on the Census Bureau’s estimates.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts — Belton · Wikipedia — Belton, Texas

Homes and prices

Homes.com’s public data for Belton (trailing 12 months, as crawled in August 2026) puts the median sale price at $322,442, down 4% year over year, with a median single-family sale price of $323,000 and a median townhouse price of $250,000. Homes sold at an average of $185 per square foot across 1,036 sales in the year. Belton is not a fast market by coastal standards: the average home took 88 days to sell (Homes.com cites a 56-day national average), with 3.90 months of supply and a median list price of $332,597 across 340 homes for sale at the crawl.

Two cautions on those numbers. First, they are a sales series, not an appraisal: Census ACS estimates put the median value of all owner-occupied homes in Belton at $258,700 (2020–2024), a different measure of a different thing. Second, sources disagree — a local market report put Belton’s median at $334,900 with 107 days on market for April 2026. Different source, different methodology; we publish the Homes.com series with its date and flag the variance rather than blending the two.

Sources: Homes.com — Belton, TX · U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts — Belton

Schools: Belton ISD, and read the rating carefully

One district serves the city: Belton Independent School District, which covers 198.6 square miles including Belton, Morgan’s Point Resort and part of Temple. The district runs 20 schools for about 13,600 students — three high schools (Belton High, Belton New Tech High and Lake Belton High), four middle schools, nine-plus elementary schools and an early childhood school. Belton High (the Tigers) enrolls about 1,762 students. Lake Belton High (the Broncos), the second comprehensive high school, opened in fall 2020, enrolls close to 2,300 students, and is physically located in Temple — a Belton ISD campus with a Temple address, which confuses more than one relocating family.

On the rating, precision matters. In the Texas Education Agency’s 2025 accountability release, Belton ISD earned an overall B (80) — the district’s first B under the current system since 2021–22, with a 94% college, career and military readiness rate. Some realty comparison tables list Belton ISD as an “A.” That conflicts with the district’s own report of TEA’s 2025 release; the A figure traces to campus-level claims (Lake Belton High’s own page claims a campus A). The district rating is B (80). Separately, TEA gave the district a 98 — an “A,” Superior Achievement — on its FIRST financial accountability rating for 2024–25, which measures financial management, not academics.

Sources: Belton ISD report of TEA 2025 accountability · Lake Belton HS — Campus Snapshot · Public School Review — Belton ISD (NCES/TEA data)

Fort Hood: the name, the namesake, the economy

Start with the name, because the internet is behind. The post west of Belton is Fort Hood. It was renamed Fort Cavazos in May 2023, then redesignated Fort Hood effective June 11, 2025, by Department of the Army General Orders No. 2025–14, with the ceremony held July 28, 2025. The 2025 name honors a different man than the original: Col. Robert B. Hood, a World War I Distinguished Service Cross recipient — not Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood. Most real-estate sites, including Homes.com’s Belton pages, still say “Fort Cavazos.” That name is dead; listings and guides carrying it were written from stale sources.

The post itself spans about 214,000 acres across Bell and Coryell counties and is home to III Armored Corps headquarters, the 1st Cavalry Division and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment. By the Texas Comptroller’s 2025 study, Fort Hood accounts for roughly $37.9 billion in total economic output, with 53,767 direct employees including about 34,474 active-duty military personnel — it has long been described as the largest single-site employer in Texas, and it is the region’s largest employer and the demand engine under Belton-area housing. Most Fort Hood soldiers live off post in surrounding communities (an Army statement once put it at about 70%), which is why Belton — on the post’s eastern side, about 20 miles from the gates — absorbs so much of that demand. Belton counts 1,762 veterans among its residents.

Sources: HQDA General Orders 2025–14 · U.S. Army — 2025 redesignation · Homes.com — South Belton

The lakes: Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow

Belton’s recreation is water. Belton Lake, about 5 miles northwest of the city on the Leon River, is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir of 12,385 surface acres with 136 miles of shoreline and a maximum depth of 124 feet, impounded in 1954 for flood control and drinking-water supply for Belton, Temple and surrounding communities. The Corps runs 11 public-access parks on it, the Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area sits on the north shore, and three marinas operate on the lake. One rule surprises newcomers: private docks are not allowed anywhere on Belton Lake under the Corps’ master plan.

West of town, Stillhouse Hollow Lake — also a Corps reservoir, on the Lampasas River about 4.5 miles from Belton, dam completed 1968 — covers 6,430 acres with four Corps parks, fishing for bass and catfish, and the Chalk Ridge Falls Environmental Learning Center below the dam. (Corps documents put Stillhouse’s shoreline anywhere from 58 to about 72 miles; the acreage is the consistent figure.)

Sources: Recreation.gov / USACE — Belton Lake · USACE Fort Worth District — Belton Lake · Recreation.gov — Stillhouse Hollow Lake

The university: Mary Hardin–Baylor

Belton is also a college town. The University of Mary Hardin–Baylor (UMHB), a private Baptist university affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, was chartered by the Republic of Texas in 1845 as the female department of Baylor University and is now an independent institution awarding bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. Its 170-acre campus at 900 College Street enrolls 3,914 students per university-reported figures, and its Crusaders compete in NCAA Division III. A university that size in a city of 26,000 is a real presence — rentals, jobs and a steady flow of young households.

Sources: Wikipedia — University of Mary Hardin–Baylor (university-reported enrollment)

Three Creeks: new construction, and the tax line builders skip

The growth edge of Belton is Three Creeks, a master-planned single-family community about 3.5 miles southwest of the city near Stillhouse Hollow Lake and the Lampasas River. A fact most marketing glosses over: Three Creeks sits in Belton’s extraterritorial jurisdiction — it is not inside Belton city limits. The community covers about 571 acres, developed by WBW Development Group; as of October 1, 2025, its municipal utility district’s official statement counted 1,616 lots platted and 1,328 homes completed, with 48 more under construction. Builders recorded there include D.R. Horton, Stylecraft Builders, Tippit Homes, Carothers and Omega; Stylecraft’s current offerings run $289,900–$381,900, and closed sales in the subdivision over the past year show a median of $306,915. The amenities are genuine: 5-plus miles of hiking and biking trails, a central pavilion, a playground and Lampasas River access.

The tax structure is the part to understand before you buy. Because it is outside city limits, a Three Creeks home does not pay City of Belton tax — it pays Bell County Municipal Utility District No. 1 instead, at $0.783 per $100 of taxable value for 2025. That is a higher rate than the city’s, and it is the figure builder marketing tends to omit. And on HOA dues: they are not published anywhere — not by the builders, not in the district documents — so any dues figure for Three Creeks has to come from the HOA documents for the specific address. Angie Moore holds the verified realtor seat for Three Creeks on Neighborhood Registry, one of her 11 Belton-area seats.

Sources: Bell County MUD No. 1 Official Statement (Series 2025) · Three Creeks data file (CTXMLS records)

Morgan’s Point Resort: the lake city

About 7 miles north of Belton, on the eastern shore of Belton Lake, Morgan’s Point Resort is its own incorporated city — population 4,636 in the 2020 Census — built around lake life. The city operates the Morgan’s Point Resort Marina at 16 Calamity Jane Drive, with slips from 10×20 to 18×50 feet (rates updated in November 2024, running $145 to $387.50 a month) and boat rentals. Children there attend Belton ISD, and many residents commute to Temple or Belton or are associated with Fort Hood. One MLS quirk worth knowing: most recorded sales in Morgan’s Point Resort list “Belton” as the city, even though it is a separate city — which understates the lake market in most Belton statistics.

Sources: City of Morgan’s Point Resort — Marina · Wikipedia — Morgan’s Point Resort, Texas

Who Belton fits — and who it doesn’t

Belton fits: Fort Hood soldiers, civilians and retirees who want Belton ISD and the lakes on the post’s quieter eastern side; households priced out of Austin willing to trade a 60-mile I-35 run for a $322,442 median; buyers who want new construction at Three Creeks price points and understand the MUD math; and anyone whose weekends run on a boat — two Corps lakes and a city marina are minutes away.

Belton doesn’t fit: buyers who need walkable urban amenities in town (the restaurants, hospitals and big-box depth are in Temple, 8 miles east, or down the corridor); commuters who will resent I-35 at rush hour; and buyers who want a single simple tax-and-dues picture — between city parcels, the Three Creeks MUD and parcel-by-parcel exemptions, Belton’s carrying costs have to be computed per address, not assumed.

The verified local expert for the Belton area

Neighborhood Registry verifies one realtor per neighborhood against the state license record. For the Belton area, that realtor is Angie Moore of Anchor Realty — the independently verified real estate agent for the Belton area in Texas. We checked her Texas Real Estate Commission license (712998-SA) directly against the public record; she was independently verified on September 16, 2026. She holds the verified realtor seats for 11 Belton-area communities on the Registry — among them Three Creeks, Morgan’s Point Resort, Nolanville, Holland and Troy. Her Registry profile carries her service details, the Belton city page tracks the seats and the verified team for the area, and our Belton real estate fact page carries the full sourced numbers behind this guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Army post near Belton still called Fort Cavazos?

No. The post was redesignated Fort Hood effective June 11, 2025, and the name now honors Col. Robert B. Hood, a World War I Distinguished Service Cross recipient — not the Confederate general the original name honored. Many real-estate sites still say Fort Cavazos; the name is out of date.

What school district serves Belton, Texas?

Belton Independent School District — about 13,600 students across 20 schools, including three high schools. TEA rated the district B (80) overall in its 2025 accountability release. The “A” in some realty tables is a campus-level figure, not the district’s rating.

How much do homes cost in Belton?

Homes.com’s trailing-12-month data (crawled August 2026) puts the median sale price at $322,442, at an average of $185 per square foot, across 1,036 sales. The median single-family sale price was $323,000.

What are the HOA dues in Three Creeks?

They are not published anywhere — not by the builders and not in the utility district’s documents. Verify dues from the HOA documents for the specific address. Separately, Three Creeks homes pay Bell County MUD No. 1 tax ($0.783 per $100 for 2025) instead of City of Belton tax, because the community is in Belton’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, not inside city limits.

Who is the verified realtor for the Belton area?

Angie Moore of Anchor Realty, whose Texas license (TREC 712998-SA) Neighborhood Registry checked directly against the Texas Real Estate Commission’s public record; she was independently verified on September 16, 2026, and holds the verified realtor seats for 11 Belton-area communities.