Middlegate
- Built
- Early 1980s
- High school
- Cypress Falls
- MUD
- 162, 163
- Pools
- One pool
Copperfield · Houston, Texas 77095
What a house is worth here is decided less by its square footage than by which of the seven villages it stands in. Tom Stallings has lived in Southdown Village since 1989, which is longer than he has held a license.
REALTOR® · ABR · CRS · SRES · TREC #480133-SA · Licensed since 2000 · McCallum Realty
The agent
Tom Stallings arrived in Houston in 1989 and settled his family in Copperfield Southdown Village, where he still lives and keeps a home office on Knolls Lodge Court. He was licensed by the Texas Real Estate Commission in 2000 and joined the National Association of REALTORS® the same year, which means he has lived in this community longer than he has sold real estate in it. One of his children was born at Cy-Fair Hospital.
That is why the neighborhood work reads the way it does. He maintains recurring, dated market reports for Southdown Village specifically, benchmarked against Harris County and the wider Houston metro, rather than working from county-wide averages that flatten the differences between villages. He runs a farm-area campaign reaching roughly 600 households in Copperfield Southdown, and issues a focused neighborhood data report about three times a year covering what sold, what is available and where the market stands over the preceding 90 days.
He caps his active client list at no more than seven at a time. Every client works directly with him rather than a junior associate or a transaction coordinator standing in as the relationship. When a flood zone boundary, a school attendance line or a title issue turns up, the call comes from the person who recognised it, by phone or in person, while there is still a window to do something about it.
The place
Friendswood Development bought 1,800 acres of Gus Wortham estate farmland in 1977 and sold the first homes here in 1979. Rather than building one enormous subdivision around one pool, the plan divided the land into seven villages, each with its own park, its own pool, its own tennis courts and its own homeowners association. A further 260 acres came in during 1989. Ask anyone who lives here where they live and they will name the village before they name Copperfield.
That structure is the single most consequential fact about buying or selling here. Four villages feed Cypress Falls High School and three feed Langham Creek. The municipal utility district serving a lot moves the combined tax rate across a range of roughly 2.0 to 2.4 percent, and Westcreek sits alone in MUD 264 while Southdown touches four separate districts. Two brick houses of similar size and vintage, a mile apart, can carry different monthly payments and feed different campuses.
What you get in exchange is an uncommon combination. The homes are red brick on all sides, dormered and gabled, mostly three to five bedrooms and 1,900 to 3,200 square feet, under a tree canopy that has been filling in since the first phase went up in 1979. There is no City of Houston property tax, because Copperfield sits in the extraterritorial jurisdiction. Bear Creek Pioneers Park, 2,154 acres of it, sits immediately south and will never be developed, because it is leased reservoir land. The community came through Hurricane Harvey without homes flooding, in the storm that took so much of west Houston.
The honest part: this is 1980s and 1990s housing stock, so roofs, HVAC systems, water heaters and electrical panels are the four numbers that decide what a house is worth. Flood maps get revised and risk varies lot to lot, so the FEMA designation gets pulled for the exact address every time. None of that is a reason to look elsewhere. It is a reason to look here with someone who checks it before you write.
The register
Each with its own association and recreational hub. The high school line and the MUD are the two entries that move a price.
Copper Lakes, Copper Grove and Hearthstone are adjacent communities, not Copperfield villages. They carry their own associations, their own dues and in some cases different campus assignments. Above the seven village associations sits the Copperfield Community Association, which maintains the shared common areas.
The numbers
The neighborhood median, the wider 77095 ZIP median of $337,000 and Tom's Southdown Village range of $300,000 to just over $400,000 describe three different geographies and are not interchangeable. Using the wrong one is how a listing sits. Ask for a current, address-level read before you price a house or write an offer on one.
The hundred
Ten chapters, every entry grounded in a named street, campus, district, park or figure.
Other areas
Clients
Published on HAR.com and reproduced verbatim.
We chose Tom as our realtor® for the sale of our house in the Copperfield community. We were looking for a realtor® who was full time in the profession, local, experienced and familiar with the area and Tom met the criteria, While the house was on the market Tom went above and beyond what we expected of a realtor®. Because we had already moved out of our house and out of town, we were grateful for the time and effort that Tom did to ensure that our house was ready to be sold. Also, after each showing he would stop by the house to ensure that all of the lights were turned off and that the house was in order. He was very professional, and he kept us well informed of the status of any showings and offers. He was there for us from the beginning and until we closed. We were very pleased with the results and highly recommend Tom for your real estate needs.
Tom is an exceptional realtor®, and we truly can't recommend him highly enough. From start to finish, he made the entire home buying process feel much less overwhelming. As young first time homebuyers, we appreciated how confident, informed, and supported he made us feel every step of the way. His knowledge, patience, and dedication made all the difference, and we couldn't have asked for a better realtor®.
Tom Stallings is an excellent realtor®, with lots of knowledge and experience. He gives you time and space to make your own decisions, while providing invaluable guidance. Would recommend him to any family or friend
Questions
It depends on which high school you want, what your tax tolerance is, and how new you need the house to be. Copperfield Place, Easton Commons, Middlegate, and Northmead feed Cypress Falls. Southcreek, Southdown, and Westcreek feed Langham Creek. Copperfield Place is the newest section, centered on about 1998, and Middlegate is the earliest. The MUD serving each village also changes the tax rate, so two similar houses in two villages will not carry the same monthly payment. Tom walks the tradeoffs village by village before you start touring.
Copperfield came through Hurricane Harvey in August 2017 without homes flooding, and historically no house in the community has flooded. The community sits in the watershed north of the Addicks Reservoir, so it is not a place to skip the homework, but the lived record is strong. Because flood maps are revised over time and risk varies lot to lot, Tom pulls the current FEMA designation and the flood history for the exact address before you write an offer.
Roughly 2.0 to 2.4 percent of value combined, depending on which municipal utility district serves the specific lot. There is no City of Houston property tax, because Copperfield sits in the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction rather than inside the city limits. The 2025 components per $100 of value are Cypress-Fairbanks ISD at $1.0669, Harris County combined at $0.6241, and Lone Star College at $0.1060, plus one MUD in the range of about $0.15 to $0.40. Confirm the exact MUD and rate for an address at HCAD.org.
No. Copperfield finished building out, so it is a resale market. That is an advantage more often than buyers expect: condition sets the top of the range rather than a builder's incentive package, and the homes sit on mature lots with tree canopy that a new subdivision will not have for twenty years. Buyers who want brand-new construction are generally better served a few miles north in Cypress, and Tom will tell you that directly rather than showing you houses you will not want.
Four numbers first: the age of the roof, the HVAC system, the water heater, and the electrical panel. After that, lot grading relative to the street, any evidence of past moisture in the garage or on lower drywall, and foundation indicators such as sticking doors, cracked tile, or stair-step cracks in the brick. None of this is a reason to avoid the community. All of it is knowable in advance, and knowing it is what lets you bid accurately instead of hopefully.
Tom has lived in Copperfield Southdown Village since 1989, which is longer than he has been licensed. He tracks recurring neighborhood-level market reports for this community rather than relying on county-wide averages, and he caps his active client list at seven so that the person you talk to about a flood zone boundary or a school attendance line is the person you hired. He has been licensed in Texas since 2000 and holds the ABR, CRS, and SRES designations.
Get in touch
Weekdays 9:00 to 5:00, Saturdays after 10:00, Sundays after noon. Text is best for a quick question, email for anything with documents attached.