What Forney is like
Forney is a Kaufman County city on US 80 east of Mesquite, in ZIP 75126, and the Forney Economic Development Corporation puts it 21 miles east of Dallas. It is growing fast. The 2020 Census counted 23,455 residents, up from 14,661 in 2010, and the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate is 41,658, a 78.9 percent increase over the April 2020 estimates base. The development corporation, citing the same Census series, calls Forney the fifth fastest-growing city in North Texas and the eighth fastest-growing in the country from July 2024 to July 2025. The city says it covers 14.35 square miles and has another 26 square miles of extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), and that distinction matters to buyers: a Forney mailing address does not always mean a home is inside the city.
History
The settlement began around 1870 as Brooklyn, according to the Handbook of Texas, named for springs that joined to form a brook. When residents applied for a post office in 1873 they found another Brooklyn already existed in Shelby County. The Texas and Pacific Railway built through that same year, and on December 29, 1873, the town took the name Forney for railroad director John Wien Forney. It was incorporated in 1884. Farms on the blackland prairie grew cotton, corn, grain and onions, and a 2021 Texas House resolution marking the city's 150th anniversary dates local manufacturing to 1936. The population passed 3,000 by 1960. In 1964 the Forney Reservoir was built on the East Fork of the Trinity River, about four miles north of town, to supply water to Dallas; it was later renamed Lake Ray Hubbard. The Handbook puts the population at 5,588 in 2000.
Downtown and Antique Row
The Texas Legislature recognized Forney as the "Antique Capital of Texas" in 1987, a designation the 2021 House resolution recalls. A 2012 InForney report said the town then had about 5,000 residents and more than 100 antique dealers, most along US 80 on what became known as Antique Row, and traced the first shop to Glenn "Red" Whaley in the late 1960s. That report also noted that reproductions had largely replaced antiques, and the Handbook of Texas now counts about fifteen warehouses along Highway 80 selling antiques and reproductions.
Historic downtown runs along Main, Broad and Bois D'Arc streets. The city's downtown directory lists restaurants including Mama's Daughters' Diner, Forney Brewing Co. and Addison Coffee Roasters, along with the Spellman Museum of Forney History at 200 South Bois D'Arc Street and the development corporation's office at 210 South Bois D'Arc. The city's holiday calendar includes the Bell Park tree lighting and Christmas on Main in December, and the development corporation lists a New Year's Eve ball drop, Brews on Bois D'Arc and the Forney Wine and Arts Festival among annual events.
Parks and things to do
Forney Community Park anchors the park system. The city's recreation page puts total parkland at 242 acres, 84 percent of it at Community Park, with Mulberry Park on a 33-acre site and undeveloped parkland near Gateway Boulevard. The development corporation describes Community Park as 170 acres of athletic fields and courts, trails and a splash pad; the splash pad runs daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. The Spellman Amphitheater, added to the park in 2012, holds 5,000 people for concerts, festivals and Movies in the Park. North of US 80 the city owns about 60 acres near Reeder Road and Ridgecrest Road, known as the Northside Park property, and the council adopted a master plan for it, with a recreation center feasibility study, on February 3, 2026. The development corporation points to Lake Ray Hubbard, a few minutes away, for water recreation.
Most shopping is on US 80. The Village at Gateway, in its first year in 2026, has Target, The Home Depot, H-E-B, BJ's Wholesale Club, Burlington and Five Below, with more stores opening through the summer, according to the development corporation.
Schools
Forney ISD serves the city. TEA's TXschools.gov lists 24 campuses and 19,643 students for 2025-26, and the district says enrollment passed 20,000 as of June 2026. There are two high schools, Forney High School at 1800 College Avenue and North Forney High School at 6170 Falcon Way, plus Forney Learning Academy for grades 7 to 12. Four middle schools (Brown, Jackson, Themer and Warren) serve grades 7 and 8, four intermediate schools (Jones, Rhea, Rhodes and Smith) serve grades 5 and 6, and the district directory lists twelve elementary campuses. In TEA's 2025-26 accountability ratings the district earned a C with a score of 79, the same as in 2024-25. Forney High and North Forney High each earned a B, and campus ratings across the district range from A to F, so look up the specific campus on TXschools.gov. The district has posted 2026-27 attendance zones and proposed new elementary zones for 2027-28. Zones are drawn by street and change, so confirm the campus for a specific address with the district's school finder.
Getting around
US 80 is the main road west to Mesquite and Dallas, and the development corporation puts Interstate 20 less than five miles away. TxDOT's fourth-quarter 2025 Kaufman County report listed the widening of US 80 from Lawson Road at the Dallas city line to FM 460, with bridge replacement, as 78 percent complete and scheduled to finish in July 2026; an August 2026 InForney update said the six main lanes and continuous frontage roads were expected to be done by September 2026. FM 548 from Windmill Farms to US 80 is being rebuilt from two lanes to six, with an April 2028 finish date in the TxDOT report. In April 2026 TxDOT posted notice of a proposed project to widen FM 460 from US 80 to FM 740, and part of FM 740, from two lanes to a four-lane divided road, six lanes ultimately. STAR Transit runs scheduled and concierge bus service in Kaufman County, and Mesquite Metro Airport is about 9 miles away. Census figures put the mean commute for Forney workers at 36.4 minutes.
What homes are like
Census figures for 2020 to 2024 put the owner-occupancy rate at 72.2 percent and the median value of owner-occupied homes at $346,400. The city issued 943 residential permits in 2024 and 2025 combined, according to the development corporation, which also notes that more single-family development is coming just outside the city limits. It describes housing that runs from starter homes and historic properties to larger executive homes and new apartments, and lists eight newer apartment communities, including Gateway Cedars, Gateway Oaks and Parc at Windmill Farms. New construction is mostly in master-planned communities. Devonshire, near US 80 and FM 548, is one: Ashton Woods lists homes there on 40- and 50-foot homesites from $299,990 to $442,990 on its site in November 2026, with a clubhouse, pool, ponds, trails and an amphitheater. Farther up FM 548, Windmill Farms Boulevard is home to Forney ISD's Brown Middle School and its transportation center.
What to check before you buy
Start with jurisdiction. The city says its published tax rates apply only inside the city limits and that properties with Forney addresses outside them pay different taxing entities. Meraki is an example: Bloomfield Homes says the 1,100-acre community lies in McLendon-Chisholm's ETJ, outside both Forney's city limits and its ETJ, with Ledbetter Municipal Utility District No. 1 of Kaufman County, Kaufman County Sheriff patrol, fire service from ESD No. 6 and a tax rate the builder lists at 2.75 per $100. Inside the city, the combined rate for tax year 2024 was $2.107253 per $100: $0.405240 for the city, $0.415113 for Kaufman County and $1.2869 for Forney ISD. Look up any address on the Kaufman County Appraisal District site to see every taxing unit, including any MUD or PID. Next, confirm the school zone, since the district has proposed new elementary zones for 2027-28. Check road work near the property too: FM 548, FM 460 and FM 741 all have widening projects under way or in design. For new construction, read the builder warranty and the HOA documents, and ask which phases are still to come.
We sell in Forney and across Kaufman County and can pull the recent sales for a specific street or subdivision, along with its taxing units and school zone, before you make an offer.