Carrollton

Welcome to Carrollton

Carrollton sits about 15 to 18 miles north of downtown Dallas, spread across three counties (Dallas, Denton, and Collin). I-35E runs down the west side, the President George Bush Turnpike cuts across the middle, and the Sam Rayburn Tollway clips the far north end, so most of the metro is a straight shot away. Housing is mostly single-family: brick ranch and traditional homes from the 1970s and '80s in the core, plus newer master-planned neighborhoods and townhomes in the northwest 75010 pocket. Median sale prices ran roughly $412,000 to $430,000 in 2026 with tight inventory. The honest trade-off is that Carrollton is big and split across several school districts, so which part you buy in really matters.

Most of Carrollton is served by Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD (CFBISD). Its three Carrollton high schools are Creekview, Newman Smith, and R.L. Turner, feeding from middle schools that include Blalack, Field, Long, Perry, and Polk. But Carrollton is a multi-district city: the northern 75010 area is Lewisville ISD (Hebron High School), and smaller pockets fall into Dallas ISD, Coppell ISD, or Plano ISD (the Collin County slice). Because assignment changes street by street, verify your exact address in the district's school locator before you commit to a home.  
(Zones change. Confirm current boundaries with Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, or your assigned district, before relying on them.)

Carrollton does well here, mostly thanks to the Elm Fork of the Trinity River on its west edge. The Elm Fork Nature Preserve is a 40-acre wooded tract donated to the city in 1986, sitting inside the McInnish Sports Complex off Sandy Lake Road, with a one-mile natural-surface trail and a half-mile ADA-accessible loop. Nearby, the 38-acre Dimension Tract has a 14-acre pond and a canoe and kayak launch right on the river. Add the Furneaux Creek nature trail and the Carrollton Blue Trail, and there's real green space for a suburb this dense.

The big one is the Festival at the Switchyard, held every fall in Historic Downtown Carrollton. It's free (free parking, free rides, free concerts) and pulls 30,000 to 40,000 people for national headliners on the old rail switchyard. The 2025 edition ran November 8 with Rick Springfield and the Spin Doctors; the 16th annual is set for November 7, 2026. Beyond the festival, the downtown square programs live entertainment and free movie nights on the green through much of the year.

Two centers of gravity. The historic downtown square has 100-plus years of history and a walkable strip of restaurants and shops, from Babe's Chicken to Cane Rosso and Twisted Root, with a new Street Corner Urban Market slated to open across from the square. The other is Carrollton's "New Koreatown" around Old Denton Road and the George Bush Turnpike: 50-plus shops anchored by H Mart and 99 Ranch, with Korean grills, bakeries, and cafes packed into a few plazas. It's one of the best Asian food runs in DFW.

Settlers reached the area in the 1840s under the Peters Colony land grant. The A.W. Perry family and partner Wade Witt built a gristmill on Farmers Creek, and the small community of Trinity Mills grew up around it in the 1850s. The town most likely took its name from Carrollton, Illinois, where many of the settlers had come from. The railroad changed everything: the Dallas-Wichita line reached Trinity Mills in 1878 and made the area a cattle-shipping point, then Jay Gould extended it to Denton in 1880 and sold it to the Katy in 1881. When the Cotton Belt line crossed in 1888, Carrollton became a shipping hub for livestock, cotton, and grain, and it soon outgrew Trinity Mills. The city incorporated in 1913 with W.F. Vinson as its first mayor, later absorbing Trinity Mills, and grew into one of the largest suburbs on Dallas's north side.

Carrollton rewards buyers who get specific about which pocket they want. The 75010 northwest side is the newer, master-planned Carrollton with Lewisville ISD schools; the neighborhoods near the old square are more established, more walkable, and sit on the DART Green and Silver lines if you commute into Dallas. Our tip: spend an afternoon eating your way through the Old Denton Road Koreatown before you decide. The thing to watch is the school district, which can flip from one street to the next, so confirm the assigned district by exact address before you fall for a house.

• City of Carrollton — city services, parks, and calendar
• Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD — schools and the address-based locator
• Historic Downtown Carrollton — the square's shops and events
• Elm Fork Nature Preserve — trails and hours