What Rowlett is like
Rowlett is the largest of the towns we cover and the one on the Dallas County side of Lake Ray Hubbard. The city sits mostly in eastern Dallas County with a slice in western Rockwall County, and it counted 62,535 residents at the 2020 Census; the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate is 67,890, and the city itself says nearly 68,000. Two peninsulas reach into the lake, which gives Rowlett more than 30 miles of shoreline, more than any other city on the water.
Settlers arrived in the 1840s, and the first post office opened on April 5, 1880, under the name Morris. The town was soon renamed for Rowlett Creek, itself named for Daniel Rowlett, who held a land grant for his service in the Texas Revolution. The Greenville and Dallas Railroad reached town in 1889, the Bankhead Highway in 1921, and the city incorporated in 1952 on a vote of 84 citizens. Interstate 30 bypassed Rowlett in the 1960s, and when Lake Ray Hubbard filled in 1971 the town of 5,000 found itself on a lakefront. Growth came after that.
The lake
Lake Ray Hubbard is owned by the City of Dallas and run by Dallas Water Utilities as a drinking-water reservoir. Impoundment began on December 1, 1968; the Texas Water Development Board measures 20,947 surface acres at conservation pool and Texas Parks and Wildlife lists 21,671, with a maximum depth of 40 feet and a fishery of white and hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, catfish and crappie. One practical detail for waterfront buyers: Dallas owns the land between the take line and the water, Rowlett leases it from Dallas, and adjacent homeowners sublease it under an agreement between the two cities.
Paddle Point Park on Miller Road has a launch and dock for kayaks and canoes and starts the 6.4-mile Paddle Point Creek paddling trail, which passes a partly submerged section of the old Highway 66 bridge. Lakeside Park on C. A. Roan Drive has a fishing pier, and Scenic Point Park sits on Lakeview Parkway.
Parks and recreation
The city has more than 600 acres of parkland. Pecan Grove Park at 5300 Main Street is the center of it: Kids Kingdom, a volunteer-built playground first raised in 1998 and rebuilt in 2011; the Wet Zone, the city's family waterpark with swim lessons and the Rowlett Rays swim team; the Rowlett Community Centre with a fitness room, indoor walking track, gyms, racquetball and multi-use courts; and the historic Coyle House. Herfurth Park has the Scentral Bark dog park, pickleball and in-line hockey, Lakes of Springfield Park has disc golf and a radio-control airfield, and the Rowlett Nature Trail runs off Miller Road. Waterview Golf Club is an 18-hole par-72 course with 15 acres of lakes and about 1,500 trees.
Annual events include the Easter Eggstravaganza, Kid Fish, the Cardboard Boat Regatta, Barks, Brews and Brats, Fireworks on Main on the Fourth, and the downtown series of Touch-A-Truck, Movies on Main, the Holiday Parade and the tree lighting.
Downtown and DART
Rowlett is the one town in this group with rail. The Downtown Rowlett Station at 5000 Martin Drive, just south of Lakeview Parkway (State Highway 66), is the eastern end of the DART Blue Line, which arrived on December 3, 2012, with a 4.5-mile extension from Garland. The station has 750 free parking spaces and GoLink on-demand service. Downtown covers about 300 acres around the station, Main Street and Herfurth Park, and a strategic plan adopted in 2024 guides its redevelopment; the city is designing an open-air station pavilion for markets and pickleball after a survey of 1,454 residents came back about 79 percent in favor. The Rowlett Public Library is at 3900 Main Street.
Schools
Most of Rowlett is in Garland ISD, a district of 51,021 students and 67 campuses serving Garland, Rowlett and Sachse that earned a B rating with a score of 86 in the 2025 state accountability ratings. Rowlett High School is at 4700 President George Bush Highway, with Coyle Technology Center for Math and Science and Schrade Middle School for grades six to eight and nine elementary campuses in the city, including Herfurth, Liberty Grove, Pearson, Keeley, Back, Dorsey, Giddens-Steadham, Rowlett and Stephens. The eastern part of the city is in Rockwall ISD, which operates Doris Cullins-Lake Pointe Elementary at 5701 Scenic Drive and reports an A rating with a score of 91 for 2026. The district line matters to price and to commute, so confirm it for any address.
Getting around
The President George Bush Turnpike's eastern extension opened on December 21, 2011: 9.9 miles from State Highway 78 to Interstate 30, including a one-mile bridge over the lake, built for $958 million with a $5.4 million contribution from Rowlett. It connects the city north to Plano and Richardson and south to I-30. State Highway 66 runs east and west through town as Lakeview Parkway. Census data puts the mean commute for Rowlett workers at about 31 minutes, the shortest of the towns we cover, and the train is an alternative for downtown Dallas.
Who lives here
Census figures for 2020 to 2024 show a median household income of $112,081, an owner-occupancy rate of 75.2 percent, and a median value of $368,800 for owner-occupied homes. About 38 percent of adults hold a bachelor's degree, 22 percent of residents are under 18, and 14 percent are 65 or older. Rowlett is also the most diverse town in this group, with 20 percent of residents Black, 22 percent Hispanic or Latino and 7 percent Asian, and 24 percent of households speak a language other than English at home.
For buyers, Rowlett offers the lake at Dallas County prices, a shorter commute by road or rail, and an established city with the parks and services to match 68,000 people. The live stats above come from our own listings here.