How Do I Check if Land Is in a Flood Zone Before I Buy It in Texas?

The short answer

Start with FEMA's Flood Map Service Center at msc.fema.gov, which FEMA calls the official public source for flood maps. Search the address, find the parcel, and check whether any part of it falls in a zone beginning with A or V, which FEMA treats as high risk. Then check with the city or county, because local floodplain rules can reach beyond FEMA's lines. And on many land purchases in Texas, no one is required to hand you this information, so plan to do the checking yourself before your option or feasibility period ends.

Flood risk is one of the first things I look at on any piece of land a client is considering. It's also one of the things buyers most often assume someone else already checked.

Why land buyers can't count on a disclosure

Texas Property Code Section 5.008 requires most sellers of a home to give the buyer a written disclosure notice. That notice asks whether the property is wholly or partly in a 100-year floodplain, a 500-year floodplain, a floodway, a flood pool or a reservoir, and whether there has been previous flooding.

The same statute lists transfers it doesn't apply to. Two of them matter for land and investment buyers:

• Land where the value of any dwelling is no more than 5% of the property's total value.
• A new home that has never been occupied.

So on raw land, on acreage with an older structure that isn't really what you're paying for, or on a brand-new build, the form many buyers rely on may never show up. "The seller didn't mention it" is not the same thing as "there's no flood risk."

How to read what you find on the FEMA map

• Zones beginning with A or V are FEMA's Special Flood Hazard Area, the land covered by the 1-percent-annual-chance flood. That's what people mean by the "100-year floodplain." It doesn't mean once a century. It means a 1% chance in any given year.
• Zone AE is a common high-risk zone in North Texas maps, and it usually comes with a Base Flood Elevation: the height floodwater is expected to reach in that 1% flood.
• Shaded Zone X is moderate risk. Unshaded Zone X is low risk.
• Partly in, partly out. A floodplain line often crosses a lot rather than covering all of it. Whether there's still a good building site on the higher ground is a question for a survey and, if it's close, an engineer.

If you see a floodway on the parcel, slow down. In Fort Worth, for example, grading or structures in a floodway have to show no rise in the base flood elevation or get FEMA approval of the change first.

Why it changes the numbers, not just the risk

Financing and insurance. In communities that participate in the National Flood Insurance Program, owners of buildings in high-risk zones who have a mortgage from a federally regulated or insured lender are required to buy flood insurance. If you're building to sell or to rent, that cost belongs in your future buyer's or tenant's math, which means it belongs in yours.

Building. Development in a regulatory floodplain usually needs a floodplain development permit from the city. Fort Worth's current rules are a good example of what that can involve:

• a Floodplain Development Permit for development in the FEMA floodplain
• finished floors and mechanical and electrical equipment set two feet above the fully developed 100-year water surface elevation
• citywide compensatory storage for any fill placed in FEMA floodplains, effective February 1, 2026

Each of those can add engineering, survey work, fill and time before you ever pour a foundation.

Map changes. FEMA has a process to correct or revise a flood map. A Letter of Map Amendment (LOMA) addresses a building, lot or part of a property that was inadvertently included in the high-risk area. A Letter of Map Revision (LOMR) officially revises the map based on technical data. Both are real options. I'd still never underwrite a purchase on a map change you don't have yet.

Look past FEMA's lines

FEMA's map is the federal baseline, not always the local one. Fort Worth's City Flood Risk Areas cover places outside FEMA and city regulatory floodplains. Since July 15, 2024, development under one acre in one of those areas has had to elevate structures two feet above the 100-year flood elevation and include an engineer's certificate that it won't increase flood risk to neighboring properties.

Fort Worth also offers OneAddress, which shows whether a property falls within a regulatory floodplain, and a Stormwater Download Viewer where the public can find drainage studies, flood studies, permits and elevation certificates. Other cities in Dallas–Fort Worth have their own floodplain administrators. A short call to the right office before you sign can tell you more than an afternoon of guessing.

If you're buying income property

Under Texas Property Code Section 92.0135, a landlord has to give a tenant written notice of whether the landlord is aware the dwelling is in a 100-year floodplain, and, if the landlord knows flooding damaged the dwelling in the past five years, a notice about that too. A 2025 law adjusted how those notices can be delivered and exempted some short-term and sale-related tenancies. Either way, a rental's flood status becomes part of every lease you sign, so ask for the property's flood history and insurance history before you buy it.

What I check before a client buys land

When a client finds a piece of land they love, I pull up the flood map with them before we talk about house plans. Then I ask one question: where would the house actually sit, and where would the water go? From there, the steps are usually the same. A survey that shows where the floodplain line falls. A conversation with the city's floodplain office. An engineer if any part of the building site is in an A zone. An insurance quote before the option period ends, not after.

From a design perspective, a lot that's partly in the floodplain isn't automatically a bad lot. Sometimes the low ground becomes the view, the trees and the privacy, and the house sits comfortably on the high side. What matters is knowing that before you price it, not discovering it during permitting.

If you're comparing land to build on, my build-on-your-lot roadmap walks through the rest of the due diligence, and you'll find more for land and income property buyers on our Investors page and our Fort Worth city page. For a look at how one land market has changed, see how the Colleyville land market rewrote the rules.

If you've found a lot you love anywhere in Dallas–Fort Worth, let's investigate what you can actually do with it before you make the decision. Send me the address and I'll help you figure out what deserves a closer look.

— Katie Bankston, Principal, The Bankston Group at The Agency Dallas