Pull up the average home price for Fairfield, Texas today and you will see a number in the high $200,000s. As of September 2026, the average sits at $289,976 with roughly $147 per square foot, and the median list price for the month runs closer to $310,000, with homes spending a median of 92 days on the market before selling, a 22 percent drop from the same month a year earlier. On paper, that reads like a quiet, affordable East Texas town.
Ten minutes from downtown, on the shoreline of what used to be Fairfield Lake State Park, homes are selling for $5 million to $7 million on one-acre lots with an average of 245 feet of private shoreline. Neither price describes the same market, and neither number will show up in the other's comps. That is the thing worth understanding before you compare Fairfield to any other town near Richland Chambers Lake.
What The Median Actually Counts
The $289,976 average and the $310,000 median list price both come from the open market: homes listed through the standard listing services, sold through licensed agents, and reported the way every other house sale in Texas gets reported. That pool includes the older housing stock inside city limits, farm-to-market properties, and the smaller homes along the original Lake Fairfield shoreline that predate any of this. It is a real number, and it is useful if you are comparing Fairfield's everyday housing stock to Corsicana or Kerens.
It has nothing to do with what is happening at the site of the old state park, because that inventory was never built to sell through the same channels.
The Land That Used To Be A State Park
Fairfield Lake exists because Texas Utilities, the company now known as Luminant and owned by Vistra Corp, dammed Big Brown Creek in the late 1960s to cool the Big Brown coal-fired power plant. The plant opened in 1971 and ran until it shut down for good in February 2018. From the same year the plant opened, Texas Utilities leased 1,800 acres around the lake to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department at no cost, and Fairfield Lake State Park opened to the public in 1976. That lease held for nearly fifty years.
When it came time to renew, Vistra chose not to extend it. In June 2023, Dallas-based developer Todd Interests bought the entire 5,000-acre property, lake included, for roughly $103 million. The park closed to the public that same month, and construction crews arrived within days.
Six Hundred Homes, One Front Door
Todd Interests calls the project Freestone Club, and its own marketing describes the lake as the largest privately owned body of water in the United States. The plan that emerged in early 2023 called for about 400 lakefront homes with a first phase under 200 homesites. By the time the developer's own economic impact study was filed that November, the scope had grown to roughly 600 residences, with about 150 expected to be full-time homes and the rest used as second or third properties.
A few specifics worth knowing if you are trying to picture what this actually looks like:
- Homes are estimated to run $5 million to $7 million
- Lots start at a minimum of one acre, with an average lakefront lot carrying 245 feet of shoreline
- A 150-acre golf course is going in on an island on the lake's west side, designed by Beau Welling, the architect behind the PGA of America's West course in Frisco
- An amenity center called The Point will hold restaurants, a fitness center, a spa, boat docks, and a lakeside bar, all reserved for members
Shawn Todd, the company's founder, put the scale decision in blunt terms when the plans were first unveiled: "You could have done thousands of lots on the property. We are doing 400." That number has since grown, but the intent behind it, low density on a large private lake, has not changed.
A Fight Over Value That Ended With A Number
The purchase did not go uncontested. Texas Parks and Wildlife voted in June 2023 to pursue eminent domain and take the property back to reopen the park. That set off a formal condemnation process, and in November 2023 a panel of three Freestone County residents appointed to determine fair market value put the number at $418.3 million, close to four times what Todd Interests had paid five months earlier.
Facing a price that high, TPWD dropped its pursuit of the land in December 2023, saying it had a fiduciary duty to manage the state's resources responsibly. Whatever side of that fight you were on, the commission's own valuation is the clearest signal available of how fast this specific piece of ground has appreciated, and it is not a number that flows through any residential comp in Fairfield.
What Actually Shows Up In The Tax Base, Not The MLS
This stopped being speculative a while ago. By mid-2025, Shawn Todd told a reporter that the project had already reached $200 million in sales. Custom builder Barringer Custom Homes, one of the firms working inside the community, finished its first Freestone Club home in May 2026. Former Dallas Stars goaltender Marty Turco has taken on an ambassador role for the club, another sign this has moved from renderings to an operating amenity with a staff and a marketing calendar.
None of that pricing reaches the aggregator data that produces Fairfield's townwide average, because homes inside Freestone Club sell privately, arranged directly through the developer and its short list of builder partners rather than through open listings. The town's $289,976 average and the club's $5 million to $7 million lots sit on the same county tax rolls without ever touching the same spreadsheet.
The tax rolls are where the real shift is happening. The developer's economic impact study projects the community will represent $3.6 billion in taxable value in Freestone County at full buildout, expected around 2034 after roughly twelve years of construction. Based on the tax rates in place at the time of the study, that translates to about $51.3 million a year in property tax revenue split between Freestone County ($11.5 million), Fairfield ISD ($35.1 million), and the Fairfield hospital district ($4.7 million). Over twenty years, the study puts the net benefit to the county at $164 million, with the City of Fairfield expected to gain another $38.9 million through sales and hotel occupancy taxes.
What This Means If You Are Comparing Fairfield To Other Lake Towns
If you are weighing Fairfield against Richland Chambers Lake communities, Kerens, or Streetman using the median price alone, you are comparing Fairfield's everyday housing stock to those towns while missing the fact that Fairfield now has a second, much larger economic engine forming inside it. That engine will not push your comps up if you own a home outside the gates. Freestone Club is a different product at a different price point, sold through a different channel, and appraisal districts generally value comparable properties against comparable properties, not against a gated golf community three ZIP codes removed in price.
What it likely will do, over the build-out period through 2034, is widen the tax base that funds Fairfield ISD, the county, and the hospital district, which is worth knowing whether or not you ever set foot inside the club. It is also a strong signal about long-term demand from buyers with the means to build a $5 million to $7 million second home within driving distance of Dallas, Houston, Waco, and Austin, which speaks to the broader appeal of Freestone County lake property even for buyers who will never look at Freestone Club itself.
If you are selling a home in Fairfield today, your comps are still your comps. If you are trying to understand where the county's tax revenue and long-term development momentum are headed, this project is the reason to pay attention, and it is a conversation worth having with someone who tracks both sides of it.
A Few Questions Buyers Ask Us Often
Can I buy a home inside Freestone Club? Homes there are arranged privately through the developer, Todd Interests, and its partner builders rather than listed on the open market. It operates as a membership community, not a standard subdivision with public listings.
Will my property taxes change if I live in Fairfield but not inside Freestone Club? The development is projected to add substantial new taxable value to Freestone County, Fairfield ISD, and the hospital district over the next several years as construction continues toward its projected 2034 buildout. How that plays out for any individual property depends on local appraisal and budget decisions, so it's worth checking directly with the Freestone Central Appraisal District for specifics tied to your own home.
Is any part of the old Fairfield Lake State Park open to the public today? No. Texas Parks and Wildlife ended its pursuit of the property in December 2023, and the land, including the lake, has remained entirely private since Todd Interests took ownership in 2023.
If you're weighing Fairfield against Richland Chambers, Kerens, or another Navarro or Freestone County lake community and want a read on what the numbers actually mean for your search or your listing, The Teel Team has spent years tracking these markets shoreline by shoreline. Contact us and we'll walk through what fits your goals.
