Houston ZIP codes and school districts, matched.

Why they do not line up

ZIP codes and school boundaries are drawn by different people for different reasons

ZIP codes are drawn by the U.S. Postal Service to move mail along efficient carrier routes. School district boundaries are drawn by the state and the districts themselves, and they follow enrollment, capacity and history. Neither one consults the other.

In a metro growing as fast as Houston, the gap widens. Districts redraw attendance zones as new schools open and neighborhoods fill in. The postal map does not move with them.

That produces three traps worth knowing:

The split ZIP. 103 of our 252 ZIPs sit across two or more districts. 77024 spans Spring Branch ISD and Houston ISD. 77584 spans Pearland ISD and Alvin ISD. 77479 spans Fort Bend ISD and Lamar Consolidated ISD. Searching by ZIP alone in any of those is a coin flip.

The district that is bigger than its name. Katy ISD reaches well past the city of Katy, into Harris and Fort Bend counties. Cypress-Fairbanks ISD covers a huge slice of northwest Harris County that is addressed as Houston, Cypress and Katy.

The attendance zone inside the district. Even when a ZIP sits wholly inside one district, that district contains many elementary, middle and high school zones, and those get redrawn. Being in Katy ISD does not tell you which Katy ISD school.

The big districts

Which districts cover the most Houston ZIP codes

By count of ZIP codes each district touches, across the nine-county metro.

The four with links have their own buying guide, covering boundaries, ratings, transfer policy and what to check before you write an offer. The rest are in my Houston school districts overview.

The full mapping

Every Greater Houston ZIP code and the districts that serve it

Grouped by primary county. Shaded rows are split ZIPs, served by more than one district, where a ZIP-level assumption is most likely to burn you.

• Harris
• Fort Bend
• Montgomery
• Galveston
• Brazoria
• Liberty
• Austin
• Chambers
• Waller

Harris County 132 ZIP codes · 45 split across more than one district

Fort Bend County 23 ZIP codes · 13 split across more than one district

Montgomery County 24 ZIP codes · 13 split across more than one district

Galveston County 18 ZIP codes · 5 split across more than one district

Brazoria County 16 ZIP codes · 11 split across more than one district

Liberty County 12 ZIP codes · 6 split across more than one district

Austin County 13 ZIP codes · 6 split across more than one district

Chambers County 7 ZIP codes · 2 split across more than one district

Waller County 7 ZIP codes · 2 split across more than one district

Before you write an offer

How to actually confirm the school

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

Can I tell which school district serves a house from its ZIP code?

Sometimes, but not reliably. 103 of the 252 Greater Houston ZIP codes, 41 percent, contain more than one district. Use the ZIP to narrow the search, then confirm the address with the district’s own lookup.

Which school district covers the most Houston ZIP codes?

Houston ISD touches the most, at 62 ZIP codes across the metro, followed by Aldine ISD at 14. Touching a ZIP does not mean serving all of it, which is exactly why the table above flags splits.

Is 77494 all Katy ISD?

77494 maps to Katy ISD in this data, but it is a very large, fast-growing ZIP, and being in Katy ISD does not tell you which Katy ISD campus. Confirm the specific attendance zone for the address.

What districts serve 77024?

77024, the Memorial area, is split between Spring Branch ISD and Houston ISD. It is a good example of why a ZIP-level assumption is risky in an established, high-price area where the two districts differ meaningfully.

Do school district boundaries change?

Yes. Districts redraw attendance zones as schools open and enrollment shifts, and Houston’s growth areas see it regularly. District boundaries themselves change rarely; campus attendance zones inside them change far more often.

Does a good school district raise the home price?

It is one of several factors, and in Greater Houston it often shows up as a premium within a submarket rather than across the metro. If you want to know what a specific district is worth in a specific pocket, that is a comparative market analysis, and I am glad to run one.

Can my child attend a school outside our zone?

Possibly, through a transfer or an open-enrollment or magnet program, but those are discretionary and depend on capacity. Never buy a home assuming a transfer will be granted.

Which ZIP codes are split across districts?

All 103 of them are shaded in the table above. They cluster where districts meet, which in Houston tends to be the older inner suburbs and the fast-growing edges where districts were carved around each other.

The bottom line

Use the ZIP to shortlist, use the district to decide

If schools are driving your move, the ZIP code is where you start and never where you stop. 41 percent of Houston ZIPs cannot give you a single answer, and even the ones that can will not tell you the campus.

Shortlist by ZIP here, then confirm each address with the district. If you want help reading the trade-offs between two districts in the pockets you are considering, book a call.

For where the market stands right now — live inventory, median list prices and days on market for every Greater Houston ZIP — see the live Houston housing market dashboard, updated hourly.