Buying in Ellis County, Texas

Ellis County at a glance

Ellis County is one of 254 counties and county-equivalents in Texas. Its county seat is Waxahachie. County government publishes its offices and parcel tools online. Official county website. Its 2024 Census Bureau population estimate is 232,387 across 936 square miles of land — about 248 people per square mile. In the FBI's 2024 reported-crime file, agencies here reported 3,021 offenses — 13.0 per 1,000 residents; the breakdown is below.

Records to check before you buy in Ellis County

• Property record card — the Ellis County assessor / appraisal office. Pull the parcel's assessed-value history, exemption status, and last sale. This is the file your future tax bill is calculated from, and it shows whether the current owner is enjoying exemptions you will not inherit. County government sits in Waxahachie; the official county website is the reliable route to the parcel search and the office directory.
• Deeds & liens — the Ellis County recorder / land-records office. Read the deed chain, open liens, easements, and plat maps — the file a listing never mentions.
• Official flood determination. Check the exact parcel on FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer — not the listing site's licensed model. Zone boundaries cut through streets; the house next door can be in a different zone. Ellis County is the primary county for 13 ZIP codes in the Census Bureau's ZIP-to-county crosswalk — and zone lines ignore every one of them.
• The county's reported-crime record. In the FBI's 2024 file, agencies in Ellis County reported 3,021 offenses — 13.0 per 1,000 residents; the largest single category was larceny-theft (1,890). The crime section below sets that beside the Texas county median.
• Registry check. Run the address through Texas Public Sex Offender Website (Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), Crime Records) and note the counts within a mile — then check again the week you close.
• Permits & code history — the Ellis building department. Open permits, expired permits, and code cases tell you whether the renovation in the photos was ever inspected. County permitting is run out of Waxahachie.
• School assignment — the district office, not the listing. Only the district's own boundary lookup confirms which school an address is actually zoned for.

County list, land area and population: U.S. Census Bureau (population: 2024 PEP estimate). County seat and official website: Wikidata (CC0), checked 2026-11-04. Flood determinations: FEMA. Registry: Texas.

Reported crime in Ellis County — FBI 2024

Reported crime in Ellis County in 2024 was overwhelmingly property crime: agencies logged 3,021 offenses, of which 2,577 were property offenses and 444 violent. The total rate is 13.0 per 1,000 residents (violent 191.1, property 1108.9 per 100,000).

Inside Texas, the median county in the same file recorded a violent-crime rate of 195 per 100,000 and a property-crime rate of 858 per 100,000 (medians computed from the FBI 2024 county file across 254 counties).

The largest reported categories were larceny-theft (1,890), motor vehicle theft (367) and aggravated assault (339).

Coverage: 21 of 21 law-enforcement agencies assigned to this county reported at least one month of 2024 offense data to the FBI; 18 reported all 12 months. Counts are reported offenses only (FBI Return A / Arson master files), assigned whole to each agency's primary county; they are not adjusted for non-reporting agencies.

These are offenses reported to law enforcement — not convictions, and not a verdict on any street or address. A CurbFacts report pairs this county record with the ZIP-level picture for the specific address you are buying.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, UCR Return A + Arson master files, data year 2024 (pulled 2026-11-04).

ZIP guides in Ellis County

Registry counts and county crime records for the 13 ZIP codes whose primary county is Ellis County.

The Texas rules that apply in Ellis County

Traps researched for Texas buyers: MUD and PID districts add a second tax layer; Your first protest window comes fast.

Read the full Texas guide — disclosure standard, tax math, registry and flood

More Texas counties

All Texas counties · Texas buyer guide