Selling Your Home in Upper Kirby?

Market data

Upper Kirby home values and market activity

HAR 2025 neighborhood facts

Source: HAR.com · HAR.com · HAR.com · HAR.com · HAR.com · HAR.com (HAR 2025 Facts, based on appraisal district records). Market and appraised values are not sale prices. HAR’s neighborhood boundary may not match the subdivision exactly.

Seller preparation

What Upper Kirby buyers will ask, and what to have ready

1. TIRZ and district street projects

   Upper Kirby is served by Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone 19 (created 1999, running to 2040) and Harris County Improvement District No. 3, the former Upper Kirby Management District. Their plans include rebuilding Kirby Drive from I-69 to Bissonnet with storm drainage, water and wastewater upgrades, plus West Alabama and Bissonnet, and a proposed civic complex that would reorient Levy Park east-west. Work on a block can mean years of detours, driveway access changes and noise.

   • FY2026-2030 TIRZ budget: $125 million, approved Feb. 25, 2026.
   • West Alabama ($47.4M), Bissonnet ($35.4M), Kirby ($18.6M).
   • The FY2025-2029 budget listed $8.5M for the Levy Park civic complex; a council member said that does not mean the money will automatically be spent.

   What buyers will do: Before you make an offer on a home on or near Kirby, West Alabama, Bissonnet, Buffalo Speedway or Eastside, check that project's limits and schedule.

   What to have ready: Nothing to fix here, but know the current road projects and routes so you can answer questions accurately.

   Sources: Community Impact: Upper Kirby TIRZ budget (Feb. 2026) · Community Impact: Upper Kirby TIRZ budget (Dec. 2024) · Council Member Alcorn letter on Kirby Drive (March 2025) · City of Houston TIRZ 19

2. Brays Bayou watershed and street drainage

   HCFCD's watershed layer places Levy Park, Kirby at Westheimer and Kirby near Westpark in the Brays Bayou watershed, where HCFCD says severe flooding has happened on average at least once a decade and the $480 million Project Brays is under way with the Army Corps. The city lists deficient storm water infrastructure among the reasons the TIRZ exists, and its plans fund trunk-line work on Greenbriar and Shepherd. Risk varies by address and elevation; no area should be assumed free of it.

   • Check townhomes and older slab homes for finished-floor elevation.
   • MAAPnext draft maps cannot be used for insurance decisions yet.

   What buyers will do: Look up the address on FEMA and HCFCD maps, ask for the elevation certificate and flood claim history, and price flood insurance before the option period ends.

   What to have ready: Your seller’s disclosure flood answers, any elevation certificate, your flood insurance declarations page and records of any claim, repair or mitigation work.

   Sources: FEMA Flood Map Service Center · HCFCD Flood Education Mapping Tool · HCFCD Brays Bayou watershed · HCFCD watershed layer

3. Taxes inside the City of Houston

   Upper Kirby homes are taxed by the City of Houston ($0.519190 per $100, 2025 rate per the city's notice and HCAD), Houston ISD ($0.8421, adopted 2026), Harris County ($0.41750, 2026), Flood Control ($0.05266, 2026), the Hospital District ($0.19528, 2026), the Port ($0.00603, 2026) and the Department of Education ($0.0048, 2025); confirm on the HCAD account whether Houston Community College ($0.098802) applies. TIRZ 19 is not a separate rate on HCAD's table. HISD's homestead exemption is $140,000 plus 20% of appraised value. The seller's bill reflects the seller's value and exemptions, not yours.

   • File your own homestead exemption with HCAD after closing.
   • For condos and townhomes, add association dues from the resale certificate to your carrying costs.

   What buyers will do: Pull the HCAD account, list the taxing units and estimate taxes at your purchase price before you set your budget.

   What to have ready: Your latest tax statement with its list of taxing units and your exemptions. Buyers know their own bill will be figured on their own value and exemptions, so a clear breakdown helps.

   Sources: HCAD · Harris County Tax Office rates · Houston ISD tax information

Insurance and disclosures: buyers will price homeowners and flood insurance before they commit. Have your current declarations pages, any elevation certificate and any flood-claim history ready; Texas sellers also answer flooding questions on the seller’s disclosure notice (Texas Property Code §5.008). See our Houston flood map guide.