Sunterra is a 2,303-acre master-planned community in Katy, Texas, in ZIP code 77493. It sits a few miles north of Interstate 10 and west of the Grand Parkway. Over the twelve months ending August 2026, Sunterra closed 972 sales at a median price of $309,990. That is the highest sales volume of any community I track. It accounts for roughly 31 percent of every home sold in ZIP 77493.
To put 972 in context, it beats Cinco Ranch and Elyson combined. It also beats Sienna, the largest master-planned community in Fort Bend County, by more than 270 sales.
Sunterra is also the only community in Katy where the county line runs through the neighborhood. Which section you buy decides your county, your appraisal district and your utility district. It may decide your school district as well. Most pages about Sunterra lead with the lagoon. This one leads with that, because it costs money and nobody explains it.
Sunterra Market Data
| Measure | Sunterra |
|---|---|
| Homes sold, 12 months | 972 |
| Median sold price | $309,990 |
| Median price per square foot | $155.36 |
| Median size | 2,012 square feet |
| Median days on market | 33 |
| Median year built | 2025 |
| Active listings | 282 |
| Median active list price | $345,695 |
Source: Houston Association of Realtors MLS, closed single-family sales for the twelve months ending August 2026, plus active listings as of August 2026. I pulled these figures myself.
Why Sunterra Outsells Every Other Community In Katy
The median home that sold in Sunterra was built in 2025. That single number tells you what kind of market this is. Buyers here are transacting with builders, not with sellers.
Builders broke ground in 2020. By January 2025 they had sold 3,240 homes, against a master plan calling for roughly 7,000. RCLCO and John Burns both ranked Sunterra Houston’s top-selling master-planned community for 2023 and 2024, according to Covering Katy News.
So the volume is real, and it has a straightforward cause. Sunterra offers new construction inside Katy ISD at a median under $310,000. Very little new product in this metro lands at that price.
What The Active Listings Tell You
Active listings in Sunterra carry a median asking price of $345,695. That runs about 11.5 percent above the median that actually closed.
In a builder market, that gap is normal rather than alarming. Builders list homes before they finish them, and the listing pool skews toward larger and later-phase product. The practical consequence matters more than the number: if you price your resale against what your neighbors are asking, you will sit.
Days on market tell the healthier half of the story. Sunterra sells in a median of 33 days. Compare that with Elyson at 63 days and Katy Lakes at 62, both new communities in the same ZIP code. Sunterra moves roughly twice as fast as its closest new-construction competitors.
If you are buying, ask for closed sales in your specific section from the last 90 days. Ask what incentives the builder paid on each one. A $10,000 rate buydown never shows up in the sale price, but it absolutely changes your comparable.
Sunterra Sits On A County Line
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation permit records place several parts of Sunterra in Waller County. The Sol Club lagoon at 473 Bartlett Road lists Waller as its project county. So do the Section 29 park improvements on Cordova Hill Drive. So do the Section 27 and 40 improvements at Ventura Creek. The Section 29 filing names Waller County Municipal Utility District 37 as the owner.
Other sources, including HAR, describe Sunterra as Harris County. Both can be true of a 2,303-acre community. The Waller County Appraisal District lists Katy ISD among its active taxing units, so Katy ISD genuinely levies inside Waller County.
I have not established exactly where the line runs inside the community, and I will not guess at it. What I can tell you is what to do about it.
Before you sign, get three things in writing for your specific section. Which county the lot sits in, which municipal utility district serves it, and the current combined tax rate. Which county you land in decides which appraisal district values your home and which office you protest to. Read how MUD taxes work if the term is new to you. That page uses Fort Bend examples, but the mechanics are identical in Harris and Waller.
Two School Districts Serve Sunterra
Sunterra’s own developer states that the community is served by schools in both Katy ISD and Royal ISD. The sales brochure says the same, and notes that Phase One attends Katy ISD schools. The brochure adds its own warning that boundaries change and that buyers should confirm with the districts directly. That warning is worth repeating, because it is currently very live.
Katy ISD opened James and Mitzi Cross Elementary at 900 Sunterra Shores Drive in August 2025. That campus sits inside Sunterra, across from the lagoon park.
Katy ISD has also published a proposed attendance boundary modification for the 2027 to 2028 school year. The proposal covers the land use zones for North Sunterra VI, North Sunterra VII and Summerwell at Sunterra. If the board approves it, those students move to a new Elementary 49 in August 2027.
Can my Sunterra home be rezoned to a different school?
Yes, and a proposal to do exactly that is on the table for 2027. Katy ISD adjusts campus boundaries regularly as new schools open, and Sunterra is growing fast enough to keep triggering them.
Here is the distinction that actually protects you. A home can be rezoned to a different campus, but it cannot be rezoned into a different school district. The district line is fixed. The campus assignment is not.
So confirm both, and confirm them by address rather than by section name or ZIP code. Katy ISD publishes an address lookup tool called SARA on its attendance zones page. Royal ISD runs five campuses based in Pattison, and one of them, Royal Prairie Elementary, sits in Katy. Confirm any Royal ISD assignment with the district directly.
There is also a geographic tie between the two questions. Royal ISD’s boundary runs to the Harris County line on the east. The district sits entirely inside southern Waller County. So if your Sunterra address falls in Royal ISD, it also falls in Waller County.
The two districts differ enormously in scale. Katy ISD serves roughly 95,000 students across about 80 campuses. Royal ISD serves roughly 3,200. Neither number tells you which is right for your child. But the difference is worth knowing before you assume Sunterra means Katy ISD.
The Lagoon, The Retreat, And What Is Actually Built
Sunterra runs two amenity complexes rather than one.
The Retreat opened in summer 2024. It centers on a resort pool and a lazy river. The clubhouse holds a resident lounge, a Kids Zone, hospitality and conference space, and a lifestyle director’s office.
The Sol Club is the one people drive out to see. Its Crystal Lagoons amenity covers 2.7 acres of turquoise water with white sand beaches and a boardwalk, and residents kayak and paddleboard on it. The lagoon anchors a $40 million amenity park at Bartlett Road and Sunterra Shores Drive. That park also holds a 10,000 square foot clubhouse, covered pickleball courts, sports fields, an event lawn, horseshoe pits and a playground.
Two details buyers ask about. The lagoon operates year round and closes two days a week for maintenance. Residents and their guests get access, and nobody else does. That differs from the same developer’s Lago Mar lagoon in Texas City, where part of the water stays open to the public.
The Amenity Delays, And Where They Stand Now
Sunterra has a history here, and you should hear it from your agent rather than from a neighbor after closing.
The Houston Chronicle reported in March 2025 that more than 200 Sunterra residents had signed a petition. They asked the developer to deliver the amenities it had promised. Residents described years of delays and gaps between the advertised community and the built one. According to that reporting, one complaint concerned a pergola with metal benches presented as a park. The developer had promised playgrounds there. Another concerned an incomplete trail around the detention pond. Sunterra’s chief executive responded to the Chronicle by email.
Then things moved. Starwood Land announced the lagoon and Sol Club open in June 2025, and the state permit file shows construction completing on May 26, 2025. Separate permits registered in March 2026 cover park improvements across Sections 27, 29 and 40, with completion dated April 2026.
The honest summary is short. A buyer purchasing today is buying a lagoon that exists and can be walked on. A buyer who purchased in 2022 waited roughly three years for it. Those are two different transactions, and only one of them carries that risk.
Sunterra is still building. Early residents in newer sections should expect construction traffic and noise. Ask the builder for a written amenity schedule covering your own section, not the community as a whole.
Sunterra Is Not Sunterra Lakes
These are two different communities, and buyers mix them up constantly.
Sunterra Lakes covers 1,463 acres at FM 362 and FM 529 in Waller County, with roughly 4,000 homes planned and first residents arriving in summer 2025. The same developer builds both, and Sunterra Lakes residents receive interim access to Sunterra’s Sol Club lagoon while their own amenity gets built. That shared access is exactly why the confusion happens.
The difference that matters: Sunterra Lakes sits in Royal ISD, not Katy ISD. If a listing or a builder rep says Sunterra, ask which one, and ask for the full address.
Sunterra Compared To Cinco Ranch
| Measure | Sunterra | Cinco Ranch |
|---|---|---|
| Homes sold, 12 months | 972 | 533 |
| Median sold price | $309,990 | $550,000 |
| Median price per square foot | $155.36 | $181.85 |
| Median size | 2,012 square feet | 3,121 square feet |
| Median year built | 2025 | 2005 |
| Median days on market | 33 | 19 |
These two communities sit in the same city under the same Katy ISD brand, and they are opposite markets.
Sunterra is where you buy a new house. Cinco Ranch is where you buy a house with twenty years of comparable sales behind it. In Cinco Ranch the median sold price and the median asking price both sit at $550,000, which makes it the cleanest comp market in Katy. Sunterra cannot offer that yet, because most of it did not exist five years ago.
Neither answer is better. They suit different buyers, and the wider picture across all four Katy ZIP codes sits on the Katy real estate page.
If Sunterra’s price point is what draws you, look at Tamarron as well. It is the other high-volume builder community in this market, and it sells at a similar median in a median of 26 days.
Property Taxes In Sunterra
Third-party sources put the combined rate in Sunterra somewhere around 3.2 to 3.6 percent. I will not publish a single figure as though it applies to the whole community. It does not.
Your rate depends on your county, your school district and your municipal utility district, and all three vary across Sunterra. A community this large, built in phases across a county line, will not have one answer.
Ask the builder for the current combined rate on the specific lot, in writing, before you go under contract. Then verify it against the appraisal district for whichever county the lot sits in. On a $350,000 home, the difference between 3.2 and 3.6 percent is about $1,400 a year, which is real money against a mortgage payment.
Who This Community Suits
Sunterra fits buyers who want a new house inside Katy ISD at a price the resale market in 77494 cannot touch. It fits families who will genuinely use a lagoon, a lazy river and pickleball courts, because you pay for those amenities whether you swim or not. It fits people who accept that a community still under construction comes with dust, traffic and a moving school boundary.
Sunterra suits you less well in three cases. You want mature trees and finished streets. You need a deep history of comparable sales to feel confident about value. Or a tax rate above three percent changes what you can afford. Buyers in that last group should look hard at Cinco Ranch or the older parts of 77450 instead.
Common Questions From Buyers
How many homes sold in Sunterra last year?
Sunterra closed 972 sales in the twelve months ending August 2026, at a median price of $309,990 and a median of 33 days on market.
Is Sunterra in Harris County or Waller County?
Parts of Sunterra sit in Waller County, and state permit records confirm it for the lagoon and for Sections 27, 29 and 40. Other sources place the community in Harris County, and a 2,303-acre development can straddle the line. Confirm the county for your specific lot before you sign.
What school district serves Sunterra?
Both Katy ISD and Royal ISD serve Sunterra, according to the developer’s own materials. Katy ISD opened Cross Elementary inside the community at 900 Sunterra Shores Drive in August 2025. Royal ISD is far smaller and runs Royal Prairie Elementary in Katy. Check your exact address with the district rather than relying on the section name.
Is the Crystal Lagoon at Sunterra open?
Yes. Starwood Land opened the 2.7-acre lagoon and the surrounding Sol Club amenity park in 2025, after several years of delay. Access is limited to residents and their guests.
Is Sunterra the same community as Sunterra Lakes?
No. Sunterra Lakes is a separate 1,463-acre community at FM 362 and FM 529 in Waller County, zoned to Royal ISD rather than Katy ISD.
Is Sunterra a good place to buy right now?
It depends on what you need from the purchase. You get new construction and delivered resort amenities at a median under $310,000, which is difficult to find anywhere else in Katy ISD. You also get a high tax rate, a thin resale comp history and a community still being built around you.
Buying from a builder here? The contract, the warranty and the inspection schedule all work differently than they do on a resale, and most of what protects you happens before the slab is poured. My guide to buying new construction in Texas covers registering your agent on the first visit, the three phase inspections worth paying for, and what to read in the builder contract before you sign.
Talk To Someone Who Works This Market
My office sits in Katy, and I have lived here across three separate stretches of my life. As a kid I hunted duck and goose with my family in the rice fields north of town. Sunterra is built on that ground. It is now the highest-volume housing market in the region.
If you are buying in Sunterra, I will pull the closed sales for your specific section. I will get the county and the MUD rate confirmed in writing. I will check the school assignment by address, not by what the sign at the entrance says. If you are selling, I will price you against what closed nearby, not against what your neighbors hope to get.
No pressure, no hype, and no promises I cannot keep.
Zach Emmanouil
Broker Associate, ZACH RE GROUP at C.R. Realty
281-387-1535 | zach@zachregroup.com