Mortgage Lender Manor TX

If you're buying a home in Manor, TX, Adam Styer | HyperSmart Home Loans (NMLS #513013) gives you access to 40+ wholesale lenders, same-day pre-approvals, and 1,000+ loans closed since 2017 — serving Travis County buyers in ShadowGlen, Whisper Valley, Carillon, Presidential Meadows, Lagos, and Mustang Valley since 2017. The biggest gotcha here isn't the rate sheet — it's the school-district line. ShadowGlen, Carillon, Presidential Meadows, and Lagos sit in Manor ISD; Whisper Valley, despite its Manor mailing address, is zoned to Del Valle ISD. Get that wrong and the property-tax math, the school-rating math, and the resale story all change.

Why Should Manor Buyers Use an Independent Mortgage Broker?

Manor is still the most affordable entry point in Travis County. Median sale price $340,000 in March 2026, down 5.7% YoY, at $171/sqft (down 5.5% YoY) with 98 days on market (Redfin) — a buyer's-leverage market for the first time in years. Tesla's Gigafactory sits about 15 minutes south on SH-130, but the local employment story has shifted: Tesla finished 2025 with 16,506 employees, down 22% from its 21,191 peak, per a Travis County compliance report (TechCrunch) — still Austin's largest private employer, but no longer the demand-side tailwind it was in 2022-2024. What has actually landed on the ground is retail and healthcare, not industry: H-E-B opened October 2025 and Home Depot in May 2025 at Manor Crossing, and St. David's opened Manor's first emergency room in December 2025. The industrial square footage is real but empty — Mustang Crossing's Phase 1 delivered on schedule and sits without a named tenant. We flag that distinction here because it changes how you should underwrite a Manor purchase.

At a $340K median, FHA's $571,550 Travis County 2026 limit (Homebuyer.com) and TSAHC's income ceiling ($167,250 non-targeted, $187,320 targeted — TSAHC) both clear easily — meaning more DPA programs are actually open to Manor buyers than to buyers shopping Cedar Park or Westlake. The trade-off: median effective property tax rate is 1.69% per Ownwell, but homes inside Whisper Valley and newer ShadowGlen sections carry MUD or PID overlays that push effective rates to 2.5%+. Always confirm the full tax bill on a specific address before locking your max payment.

Manor Neighborhoods & Zip Codes

Almost all of Manor's residential growth sits in the 78653 zip — but the school-district line splits the map. Six communities now drive new-construction and resale volume:

• ShadowGlen (78653 — Manor ISD) — Master-planned around ShadowGlen Golf Club at 12801 Lexington Street (7,174-yard 18-hole), a 4-acre water park, and 202 acres of woodland trails along Wilbarger Creek. Current builder roster: Meritage Homes (lead the new ~690-home expansion phase, infrastructure fall/winter 2025, model homes spring 2026), Terrata Homes from $439,900, with Perry and Tarrytown-style builders expected as sections open. Round 1's Perry/Terrata $499K-$555K top tier still trading on resale. ShadowGlen Elementary on-site (Manor ISD).
• Whisper Valley (78653 mailing — DEL VALLE ISD) — This community is NOT zoned to Manor ISD. It feeds Joseph Gilbert Elementary (4/10) → Dailey Middle → Del Valle High School (2/10, 3,641 students) today, and it will keep feeding them longer than the marketing implies. Del Valle ISD did buy two sites inside Whisper Valley (78.1 acres for a high school, 71.1 acres for an elementary + middle — DVISD board). But North Del Valle High School has slipped twice and now opens Fall 2028, not 2026 — the district announced the delay May 27, 2026, and states plainly that "the developer is now in default of its obligations under the Post-Closing Construction Agreement," with more than $12.3 million of unbuilt access roads blocking occupancy (DVISD; FOX 7 Austin). The building itself is on schedule; the roads around it are not. 2,066-acre Taurus Investment development with geothermal heating/cooling on a community-wide GeoGrid + rooftop solar on every home. Current builder roster: Pacesetter Homes, Avi Homes, GFO Home, Terrata Homes, CastleRock Communities, AHA Dream Homes, Thurman Homes. The catch: Whisper Valley sits in Austin's ETJ — instead of City of Austin ad valorem, residents pay a PID assessment running $716.00–$2,896.49/year depending on lot type, set by the 2026 Annual Service Plan Update that Austin City Council approved July 23, 2026, plus a geothermal EcoSmart fee of about $60/month. Get your lot type before you get attached to the house — the spread across the 13 types is over $2,100/year. Pricing runs the low $300s to $500s+, with Terrata selling from $304,900. An earlier version of this page cited a Pacesetter "4.99% + closing costs" promo through May 16, 2026 — that offer is gone; Pacesetter's Whisper Valley page currently advertises no rate or closing-cost incentive at all (Pacesetter). Builder incentives in Manor turn over in weeks, not seasons — verify any advertised rate the day you write.
• Carillon (78653 — Manor ISD) — D.R. Horton community at 13407 Eppright Trace, off US-290 about 18 miles east of downtown. 9 floor plans, 1,574–2,668 sqft, $299,990–$416,990. Correcting our own earlier copy: this page previously advertised "up to $25,000 builder flex cash" through December 31, 2026. That offer is not on D.R. Horton's Carillon page in any form today. What is running as of August 20, 2026 is a 2/1 buydown — $6,497.01 in builder funds producing 2.99% year one, 3.99% year two, then 4.99% for years 3–30 (5.879% APR, FHA), on contracts signed on or after 07/10/26 and closed by 09/30/26, and it requires the buyer to pay a 0.375% discount point (D.R. Horton). Two conditions matter more than the headline rate: it's a pool-of-funds offer that can be exhausted without notice before the deadline, and it requires financing through DHI Mortgage, the builder's own lender. M/I Homes also builds inside Carillon. D.R. Horton runs an identical buydown at its second Manor community, Palomino. Resort-style amenity center: pool, pickleball/cornhole, clubhouse with gourmet kitchen, 2 outdoor grills, playscape, covered pavilion.
• Presidential Meadows (78653 — Manor ISD) — Established KB Home community off James Garfield Drive, 1,670 single-family homes planned at full build-out (Jome). New construction has wrapped on most early phases; trading mostly on resale now. Presidential Meadows Elementary on-site at 13252 George Bush St.
• Lagos (78653 — Manor ISD) — Lake-themed master-planned at 1104 S. San Marcos with Ashton Woods as primary builder; Pulte, Tri Pointe, and Milestone also active per current rosters. Mid-$300s to high-$400s. Lagos Elementary inside Manor ISD.
• Mustang Valley (78653 — Manor ISD) — KB Home's newest Manor community, 90 single-family homes planned, $299,995–$345,000 starting (grand opening 2024 per BusinessWire). Walking distance to Manor Senior High School — one of the few new-construction options at a true sub-$300K floor price in Travis County. Read KB's advertised rate carefully: the "as low as 4.75% (5.386% APR)" headline running in August 2026 is a 5/1 adjustable, not a 30-year fixed, it requires financing through KBHS Home Loans, and the APR already has a $5,000 closing-cost credit baked in — and it's tied to signing a purchase agreement by 8/31/26 (KB Home). A 4.75% ARM and a 4.75% fixed are not the same product, and the difference shows up in year six.
• Wildhorse Ranch (78653 — Manor ISD) — The newest large master-planned community in Manor: nearly 1,500 acres of rolling country off US-290 near SH-130, sitting adjacent to Manor New Technology High School (Manor ISD, not Del Valle). Builder roster: Highland Homes (19 floor plans, from the late $200s), Brohn Homes, Pulte Homes, and Milestone Community Builders. Milestone's Saddle Ridge at Wildhorse Ranch (11101 Golden Cloud Bend) runs $364,990–$486,402, 1,700–2,678 sqft (NewHomeSource). Amenities: pool with splash pad, covered pavilion, clubhouse with fitness center, playground, and a hike-and-bike trail network (HomeCity; NewHomeSource). The Highland sub-$300K tier plus Saddle Ridge's mid-$300s entry keeps most of Wildhorse Ranch inside FHA + TSAHC/TDHCA down-payment-assistance range.
• Bell Farms (78653 — Manor ISD) — Established Pacesetter Homes by Qualico community off US-290, about 12 miles east of downtown Austin. Now built out and trading on resale — current listings run roughly $250,000–$308,000 (Movoto; Redfin), one of the cheapest doorways into Manor: well under FHA's $571,550 limit and squarely in TSAHC/TDHCA sub-$5K-out-of-pocket range. Neighborhood park + playscape; feeds Presidential Meadows Elementary → Manor Middle School → Manor High School (Homes.com).
• Village at Manor Commons (78653 — Manor ISD) — Active new construction the rest of the internet mostly misses, at 12713 Skimmer Run, where US-290 meets FM 973 about 12 miles from downtown. Pacesetter Homes is the builder still selling — $329,900–$411,900 on 1,456–2,534 sqft, 3–4 bedrooms — after Chesmar's section next door at 12705 Skimmer Run sold out in April 2025. HOA is $400 annually on the Pacesetter side — note the period, because Chesmar's section quotes a separate monthly common-area charge and the two get conflated. The subdivision is confirmed in City of Manor permit records. One thing to verify yourself: Pacesetter lists the assigned elementary as Lagos, while listing aggregators show Presidential Meadows — which is 0.9 miles away and looks like nearest-by-distance rather than an attendance zone. With no published district map, confirm this one with Manor ISD directly.
• Stonewater (78653 — Manor ISD) — Built-out resale, and the cheapest real doorway into Manor we can document. Interior streets include Pernella Rd, Stoneridge Gap Ln and Carbrook Rd; homes went up roughly 2008–2018, originally Express Homes / D.R. Horton. Current resale runs $210,000–$475,000 across 1,012–2,570 sqft with about 23 active listings (Neighborhoods.com). HOA runs roughly $117–$129 per quarter — we're publishing only the figure whose billing period is actually stated on a listing, and ignoring the unlabeled "$350"/"$488" numbers floating on aggregator pages, because an HOA number without a period is useless for a debt-to-income calculation. Feeds ShadowGlen Elementary → Manor Middle → Manor High. At a $210K floor this is one of the few Austin-metro entries where a 3.5% FHA down payment lands near $7,350.
• Manor acreage (78653) — Outside the master-planned communities, 78653 still has acre-plus inventory. 14815 Johnson Road Trail recently listed at $700,000 on 2.57 acres; 20217 Engelmann Ln at $725,000 on 40 acres (Texas Real Estate Source). Median list for Manor acreage homes is $847,450 — above the 2026 Texas conforming line of $832,750, so plan on a jumbo or high-balance product on the upper end.

Manor Schools — What the Numbers Actually Say

The 78653 zip is split between Manor ISD and Del Valle ISD, and Manor ISD itself runs four high schools, not one. Be honest about the ratings before you fall in love with a house:

• Manor High School (14832 N FM 973, grades 9–12) — the default zoned campus, 2,420 students, GreatSchools 2/10. ShadowGlen, Carillon, Presidential Meadows, Lagos, Mustang Valley, and Bell Farms all default-feed Manor HS unless a student wins one of the choice-program lotteries.
• Manor New Technology High School (10323 Hwy 290E, 640 students) — application/lottery campus admitted in spring of 8th grade, GreatSchools 4/10 (better than Manor HS, but still below state average). Project-based learning model, and the single biggest rating upgrade available to a Manor family — by application, not by address.
• Manor Early College High School (MECHS) — separate application/lottery; college-credit pathway via partnership with Austin Community College.
• Manor Senior High School — junior/senior-only Career & Technical campus, ~1,000–1,200 students. Mustang Valley sits within walking distance.
• Whisper Valley = Del Valle ISD, NOT Manor ISD. Today: Joseph Gilbert Elementary 4/10 (662 students) → Dailey Middle → Del Valle High School 2/10 (3,641 students). The in-community high school is not coming in 2026. See below — it's a 2028 story now.

Here's the part most Manor listings won't tell you: there is no elementary-school arbitrage in Manor ISD. Every on-site elementary inside the named master-planneds clusters in the same narrow band, all fetched from GreatSchools on August 20, 2026 — ShadowGlen Elementary 2/10 (12000 Shadowglen Trace, 639 students), Lagos Elementary 3/10 (11817 Murchison St, 637 students), and Presidential Meadows Elementary 3/10 (13252 George Bush St, 569 students). They all feed Manor Middle School 2/10 (12900 Gregg Manor Rd) and then Manor HS. Correcting our own earlier copy: a previous version of this page listed Lagos at 6/10 and called it the strongest elementary among the named communities. It reads 3/10 today, one point off ShadowGlen — so if you picked a subdivision on the strength of that gap, the gap isn't there. Paying up for Lagos over ShadowGlen buys you amenities and a builder, not a materially better elementary.

Which means the real school decision in Manor isn't which subdivision — it's whether your student applies. The only meaningful rating spread in the district is between the default campus and the lottery campuses: Manor HS 2/10 by address versus Manor New Tech 4/10 by application in the spring of 8th grade. No amount of purchase price moves you between those two. Budget your house on payment and taxes, and treat the high school as an application to prepare for. Manor ISD still publishes no elementary attendance-zone map ("coming soon" per the district zoning page, unchanged since 2024) though a middle-school zone map PDF is posted — so confirm any specific address with the district before you write.

The thing to actually watch: Manor ISD has a $400 million bond on the November 3, 2026 ballot. The board called it 6-0 on August 10, 2026 — Prop A at $391.5M (Manor New Tech expansion, a Bluebonnet Trail rebuild, Manor HS renovation and consolidation, Decker and Blake Manor renovations, safety upgrades, buses) and Prop B at $8.5M. If both pass, the district projects the tax rate rises 3.85 cents per $100 (Manor ISD Bond 2026; board minutes). Early voting runs October 19–30. Voters rejected the prior $385M bond in November 2025 (Manor ISD), so this is the second attempt — and it lands after most fall contracts are already signed. If you're closing this autumn, underwrite your payment knowing 3.85 cents is on the table. On a $340,000 assessed valuation that's $130.90/year (3,400 × $0.0385), about $11/month — or roughly $92/year once Texas's $100,000 school-district homestead exemption lands and the school portion is assessed on $240,000. Not a deal-breaker either way, but you should hear it from your lender before you hear it from a tax bill — and note that a first-year purchase doesn't have that exemption in place yet.

One more reason to verify the campus, not assume it: Manor ISD runs 16 campuses serving roughly 9,873 students (2025-26 TEA enrollment — the 2026-27 count isn't published until the late-October PEIMS snapshot). Campus count is worth a footnote, because sources disagree: the district's own directory and NCES both list 16, while Texas Tribune shows 15 because it omits the Manor Alternative Program and files Manor Rise Academy under elementary. And the boundaries genuinely move — the district already adopted a shift, effective the 2024-25 school year, rezoning Loma Vista Manufactured Home Community, Oak Forest RV Resort, and Bluestem Apartments at Loyola from Decker Elementary (1/10) to Oak Meadows Elementary (3/10, 5600 Decker Lane, 475 students). The same action moved 11 streets from Presidential Meadows to Blake Manor and reassigned undeveloped ShadowGlen land to Lagos (Manor ISD board). That's the pattern to plan around: with no published elementary map and boundaries that have already been redrawn once, an assignment quoted by a listing agent is a starting point, not a fact. Email the district for the specific address before you write the offer.

Major Employers Near Manor

The local employment story has shifted hard in 2026 — away from Tesla growth and toward Tesla-supplier and industrial-park inventory:

• Tesla Gigafactory Texas — Year-end 2025 headcount 16,506, down 22% (4,685 people) from the 21,191 peak at year-end 2024, per a Travis County compliance report cross-referenced to SEC filings (TechCrunch). Correcting our own earlier copy: a previous version of this page reported a second ~22% cut "announced in early 2026." That was double-counting — the 22% decline happened during calendar 2025 and was merely reported in April 2026 when the county filing surfaced. There was no second round. If anything the direction has turned: Tesla has been posting Giga Texas manufacturing roles tied to Cybercab production (Tesla North). At 16,506 it remains Austin's largest private employer, ~15 minutes south of Manor via SH-130. Note the next real headcount won't publish until roughly April 2027 — the county report is annual, so anyone quoting you a "current" Tesla number is guessing.
• OPmobility (formerly Plastic Omnium) — 350,000-sqft Tesla-supplier plant at 12621 Harris Branch Pkwy, Manor 78653 (Austin Chamber directory), making front-end and cockpit module assemblies at a stated 2.5M-module annual capacity. Production started September 2023. Be careful with the headcount numbers you'll see quoted: the "800 jobs" figure is from the July 2023 site-selection announcement — an aspirational ceiling, never a payroll count — and "400+ by 2025" came from a 2024 company release projecting forward. No verified current headcount exists. What is verifiable: the plant is operating and actively hiring into 2026 (production supervisor, maintenance and tool tech, planner roles posted through August 2026), and no Texas WARN layoff notice has been filed against it despite Tesla's own contraction. Call it several hundred jobs and treat any precise number as marketing.
• Mustang Crossing — square footage, not payroll. 127-acre, six-building, 1.2M-sqft Class A industrial park at 13754 Gregg Manor Rd by Ryan Companies + DWS Group (Urbanize Austin). Phase 1 — four buildings, 582,080 sqft — was permitted for a March 2026 completion and delivered on schedule per TDLR records. It delivered empty. Building 1's full 291,200 sqft is still marketed as a single available block through JLL, with no tenant named (CommercialSearch), and Building 5's 434,560 sqft is likewise available. Nor is it an outlier: roughly 4.87M sqft of Manor industrial space is currently listed with no tenants named on any of it, including Manor Downs Logistics Center and Titanium Commerce Park (CommercialSearch Manor). We're listing this as a building, not as jobs — because that's what it is today. Delivered warehouse shell is a bet on future hiring, and a lender shouldn't underwrite your household on someone else's bet.
• Manor Crossing retail — 18-acre retail center at US-290 + FM 973. Open and verifiable today: H-E-B store #811 (13100 FM 973, 101,000 sqft with pharmacy, curbside and a 14-pump fuel station), which opened October 22, 2025 as the first H-E-B in Manor (The Shelby Report); Home Depot store #6541 (13100 N FM 973, ~134,000 sqft), open since May 2025, which the company said staffed more than half its associates as new hires (Home Depot); plus T.J. Maxx and Chick-fil-A. A longer roster — Burlington, Planet Fitness, Five Below, Ulta, Twin Liquors, Tomlinson's and others — appears on the leasing brochure, but those are signed logos, not confirmed open doors, so we're not calling them open until they are. Either way this is the local-amenity stack Manor spent a decade without, and it's the single biggest change to daily life in 78653.
• St. David's Emergency Center — Manor — 10703 E US-290, opened December 3, 2025. 10,840 sqft, $15.3M, 11 exam rooms, 24/7 emergency care with on-site radiology and lab, operating as an extension of St. David's Medical Center (St. David's). Modest payroll — roughly 25 staff, some transferred in — but it ended Manor's status as a town of 20,000+ with no emergency room, where the nearest ER was a 20-to-60-minute drive. Separately, TXM MicroHospital (12838 US-290, 24,000 sqft, $25M, six inpatient rooms plus a six-bed ED and two operating suites) is under construction and would be Manor's first actual hospital (TXM; KXAN). Not open, no jobs yet, and its opening date has been reported two different ways — listed here as construction, not employment.
• Samsung Austin Semiconductor — Taylor — $17B fab, ~20 min north up SH-130. Production now expected in 2027 on 2nm (SF2P), with Tesla anchored as a customer through a ~$16.5B AI6 agreement signed July 2025; a second Taylor fab is slated to break ground by end of 2026 (TrendForce). Full build-out target is 10,000 jobs across Austin + Taylor (Samsung). Worth being precise: this timeline has already slipped from 2024 to 2025 to late 2026 to 2027, and Taylor is in Williamson County — it's a commute-shed argument for Manor, not a Manor employer.
• Manor ISD — the city's largest employer, per the City of Manor itself (Economic Development). 16 campuses and 633.83 classroom teachers (FTE) against 9,961 students in federal NCES reporting. Total staff including non-teaching roles isn't published, so the teacher FTE is the honest number to quote. On August 17, 2026 the board adopted a 2026 tax rate of $1.0755/$100 (M&O $0.7054 + I&S $0.3701) by a 6-0 vote, down 0.59 cents from the prior $1.0814 (board minutes). Read that carefully rather than as a tax cut — the same minutes carry the state-required notice that this rate raises more maintenance-and-operations revenue than last year's, because taxable values moved.

Manor Property Tax & Closing Costs

The Manor tax stack starts with Manor ISD at $1.0755/$100, adopted 6-0 on August 17, 2026 (M&O $0.7054 + I&S $0.3701 — board minutes), down 0.59 cents from the $1.0814 this page carried previously. Add Travis County at $0.375845/$100 (Travis County), then Travis County ESD 12 at $0.100000 and — only for addresses actually inside city limits — the City of Manor at $0.853700 (2025 adopted rates, Travis County Tax Office). That city line is the one to check first: at 85 cents it's the second-largest component after the school district, and whether it applies at all turns on city limits versus ETJ — a distinction most listings don't mention and most buyers never think to ask about. Median effective rate inside 78653 is 1.69% per Ownwell, but that median hides the thing that actually decides your payment.

ShadowGlen Has Two Different MUDs — and They Don't Charge the Same Rate

Earlier versions of this page said only that "ShadowGlen MUD adds a similar overlay," with no number. Here are the real ones, from the Travis County Tax Office's own Truth-in-Taxation dataset. First, a spelling correction: it's Wilbarger Creek, not "Wilberger" as this page previously had it — the typo sends you to dead search results. Second, and more important, ShadowGlen is not one MUD. It's two, 5.9 cents apart.

• Travis County MUD No. 2 — $0.8310/$100 (2025 adopted; M&O $0.2185 + debt $0.6125). This is the main ShadowGlen district, the one behind the pool and amenity center, playground and trail. On a $340,000 valuation that's $2,825/year, about $235/month — roughly $37,250 of borrowing power at 6.5% over 30 years, gone before you see a rate sheet. It has proposed $0.9360 for 2026, a 10.5-cent jump the district's own notice puts at about $239/year more on its sample home.
• Wilbarger Creek MUD No. 1 — $0.7720/$100 (2025 adopted; M&O $0.1720 + debt $0.6000), covering roughly 300 acres of ShadowGlen — the Laurel Trace and Stonebridge neighborhoods specifically. Up from $0.7220 in 2024. Lower than MUD No. 2 by 5.9 cents, or about $200/year on $340K.
• Wilbarger Creek MUD No. 2 — $0.9500/$100, the highest of the three.

So "what's the ShadowGlen MUD rate" has no single answer — it depends which street. That alone is worth an hour with the tax office before you write.

Now the disclosure almost nobody reads. Wilbarger Creek MUD No. 1's statutory Notice to Purchaser shows voter approval for $29,900,000 in water, sewer and drainage bonds against only $16,180,000 issued, plus $4,985,000 in park bonds with none issued — roughly $18.7 million of authorized-but-unissued debt. The notice states the district "may impose an unlimited rate of tax in payment of such bonds." Read plainly: there is more approved debt still to sell than has been sold, so today's rate is not a ceiling. MUD No. 2's proposed 10.5-cent increase is that mechanism working in real time. This doesn't make ShadowGlen a bad buy — MUD rates often fall as the tax base grows into the debt — but don't underwrite thirty years assuming the current number holds. Note also that Wilbarger Creek MUD No. 1 lies wholly in Manor's ETJ, so those homes pay no City of Manor ad valorem; the MUD is charged instead of city tax, not on top of it.

Timing matters this month. As of August 20, 2026, only a handful of Travis County's 146 taxing jurisdictions have adopted a 2026 rate — most of the Manor stack, including the City of Manor and these MUDs, is still showing proposed or voter-approval figures, with all rates expected to post by October 3. If you're closing in September, the rate your lender escrows against may not be final. Ask for it to be re-checked before funding.

• Whisper Valley PID: $716.00–$2,896.49/year depending on lot type — correcting our own earlier copy, which cited a range of $1,480.46–$2,003.66. Those figures appear nowhere in the current plan and understated the top of the range by roughly $900/year. The governing document is the 2026 Annual Service Plan Update, approved by Austin City Council on July 23, 2026 (Ordinance 20260723-013), setting installments due 1/31/2027 across 13 lot types (service plan; council agenda). Ask which lot type your specific address is — the spread between type 1 and type 13 is over $2,100/year, which is more than $175/month of payment. The geothermal EcoSmart fee runs about $60/month (Texas Tribune); we've dropped the "$55–$70" range this page used to print, because the $70 figure in press coverage was a resident's peak summer electric bill, not the fee. A PID assessment and a MUD tax are also different instruments — the PID is a fixed annual assessment, the MUD is a rate applied to your valuation, so the MUD moves when your appraisal moves and the PID doesn't.
• Get the Notice to Purchaser before you waive your option period, not at closing. Texas requires it be delivered before a binding contract, and it names the district, the rate, and the unissued bond authorization. It is the single most useful page of paper in a Manor transaction, and it's free.

Two Worked Manor Closing Costs, Built From the Actual Rate Tables

Owner's title premium in Texas isn't a lender's guess — it's promulgated by the state, so it can be calculated to the dollar. Under TDI Order 2025-9697, effective March 1, 2026 (a 6.2% rate reduction), a policy between $100,001 and $1,000,000 is (face value − $100,000) × 0.00494 + $780. Both examples below use that formula and Travis County's published $25 first page / $4 each additional recording fee (Travis County Clerk).

Example A — new construction, Village at Manor Commons at $329,900, FHA 3.5% down:

• Down payment $11,547; base loan $318,354. FHA's 1.75% upfront MIP adds $5,571, financed — so the balance is about $323,925, above the purchase price. That surprises people; it's normal for FHA.
• Owner's title policy: ($329,900 − $100,000) × 0.00494 = $1,136, + $780 = $1,916
• Recording the deed and deed of trust: roughly $110–$150 depending on page count
• Origination, appraisal, survey, escrow/credit/flood/tax service: $2,400–$3,400
• 3 months tax escrow at the 1.69% median effective rate ($5,575/yr): ~$1,394, plus first-year homeowner's insurance
• Prorated HOA — $400/year at this community, so a partial-year credit, not a monthly hit
• Roughly $18,750–$20,500 to the table, down payment included, before any seller or builder credit

Example B — resale, Stonewater at a $210,000 entry, FHA 3.5% down:

• Down payment $7,350; base loan $202,650; UFMIP $3,546 financed → about $206,196
• Owner's title policy: ($210,000 − $100,000) × 0.00494 = $543, + $780 = $1,323 — $593 less than Example A, purely because the promulgated rate scales with price
• HOA runs about $117–$129 per quarter here; get the resale certificate rather than trusting a listing field
• 3 months tax escrow at 1.69% on $210,000 ($3,549/yr): ~$887
• Roughly $13,500–$15,250 to the table, down payment included

The gap between those two is the honest argument for Manor's resale stock. Example B gets you into Travis County for roughly $5,300 less cash than Example A, and a meaningful share of that gap is simply title premium and escrow scaling with price. Both sit far below FHA's $571,550 Travis County ceiling, so both are DPA-eligible territory. One caveat on the escrow math: 1.69% is the county-wide median effective rate, and effective rates reflect homestead caps built up over years of ownership. A first-year purchase has no cap yet, and if the address sits in a MUD or PID the real number is higher. Underwrite year one at the parcel's actual stacked rate, not at the median.

FHA buyers using TSAHC or TDHCA DPA can typically cover most of this from grant funds — Manor remains one of the few Austin-metro markets where sub-$5,000-out-of-pocket closings still happen. Inside Whisper Valley, add the PID and ESS to your monthly debt-to-income calculation up front; on a 5%-down conventional, the PID alone can add $123–$167/month to the effective payment a builder lender's quote may not have shown you. For acreage homes crossing $832,750, plan on jumbo or high-balance pricing — typically a 6–12 month PITI reserve requirement.

Whether you're a first-time buyer using DPA to get into Whisper Valley or a Tesla-supplier worker moving up in ShadowGlen, the loan you sign depends on more than the rate sheet — it depends on a real human comparing 40+ wholesale lenders against your specific file. Run a quick rate check or start a pre-approval below.

How Does the Mortgage Pre-Approval Process Work in Manor TX?

Manor has the heaviest builder-incentive activity in 78653 — and the shortest shelf life on it. As of August 20, 2026, D.R. Horton is running a 2/1 buydown at Carillon and Palomino that expires 09/30/26, and KB Home's advertised rate at Mustang Valley requires a signed contract by 8/31/26. Both require the builder's own captive lender. The Pacesetter buydown this page cited a few months ago is simply gone. Here's the honest part most lender pages won't print: when an incentive is tied to DHI Mortgage or KBHS Home Loans, no outside broker can hand you that exact offer — including me. What an outside pre-approval does is tell you what the incentive is actually worth. A builder rate bought down with a 0.375% discount point on a price that wasn't negotiated can cost more over five years than a slightly higher rate on a lower price. You need both numbers side by side to see it, and the builder's lender will only ever show you one of them.