Neighborhood Guide
Lake Conroe Neighborhood Guide: The Lake, Its Communities and What a Waterfront Purchase Involves
Updated September 2026
Bottom line: Lake Conroe is a water supply reservoir north of Houston, finished in 1973 and held at 201 feet above sea level. In the Lake Conroe Area, the median home sold for $345,500 as of September 2026.
What is Lake Conroe?
A water supply reservoir on the West Fork of the San Jacinto River, north of Houston. The San Jacinto River Authority and the City of Houston built it as a joint venture beginning in 1969; the dam was finished in January 1973 and the lake had filled by October 31, 1973. The authority's rules place the lake in Montgomery and Walker counties, and about 5,000 acres of it lie in the Sam Houston National Forest.
The authority's list of lake facts gives about 150 miles of shoreline, an average depth of 20 feet and a normal level of 201 feet above mean sea level. The lake was built as a backup water supply for Houston, and since September 2015 it has also supplied drinking water in Montgomery County.
Who runs Lake Conroe, and who owns its water?
The San Jacinto River Authority runs the dam, the reservoir and the spillway through its Lake Conroe Division, which also licenses docks, bulkheads and marinas, permits septic systems near the water and works with county law enforcement on the lake. The water belongs to the State of Texas. The authority holds the permit, and the right to use up to 100,000 acre-feet a year is split one-third to the authority and two-thirds to the City of Houston.
That split matters to anyone on the water, because releases that lower the lake ahead of a storm are made at the city's request and come out of the city's share. How the level has been managed since 2018 is on the page about Lake Conroe's water level and the lowering policy.
Which communities are on Lake Conroe?
The lakeside communities this guide draws on are Bentwater, Walden, April Sound and Grand Harbor, which carry Montgomery mailing addresses, and Point Aquarius and Seven Coves, which carry Willis addresses. HAR, the Houston Association of Realtors, profiles five of them one by one, and by its 2025 count Walden has 3,385 single-family homes, Bentwater 2,366, April Sound 1,877, Point Aquarius 758 and Grand Harbor 701.
A mailing address is not a city. Of these communities only April Sound, which the City of Conroe annexed on January 1, 2015, is inside a city's limits; HAR's tax tables list no city for the others, and Montgomery County MUD 18, which HAR lists for Bentwater, puts all of its land outside Conroe's limits. How prices differ between them is in the Lake Conroe housing market update.
Which school districts serve Lake Conroe?
Three. HAR's tax tables put Bentwater, Walden, April Sound and Grand Harbor in Montgomery ISD and Point Aquarius in Willis ISD, and the Census Bureau's address lookup places a Seven Coves address in Willis ISD too. Conroe ISD is the third district that reaches the lake.
The district and the campus a house is zoned to come from its address, and each district sets and can change its own boundaries, so the address is what to check before an offer.
What do Lake Conroe's associations and clubs cost?
It depends on the community, and some add a club on top of the owners association. Bentwater's property owners association charges $996 a year for a home, plus $150 to its street repair fund, with a $500 transfer fee and a capital reserve fee of $597.60 due when a home sells, on its schedule for July 2025 to June 2026. Bentwater's club lists initiation fees from $5,000 for its social membership to $65,000 for its Grand Pines membership, with monthly dues from $217 to $968.
Walden's community association set its 2026 maintenance fee at $1,150, and some Walden sections charge a section fee on top. Deed restrictions differ by section too: the restrictions for Walden's Section 8 require any lease to run at least 180 consecutive days. The resale certificate and the section's own restrictions are the documents to read.
What does a Lake Conroe waterfront purchase involve?
Paperwork from the river authority as well as the usual contract. Its rules, effective June 1, 2015, give the authority control of the land up to the 201-foot contour, so a private dock needs its license and a yearly fee, a bulkhead needs its own permit, and the authority says it has no obligation to hold the lake at any level for a dock. Above that line it holds a flowage easement up to 207 feet, the band the lake can rise into in a storm.
The detail is on the page about Lake Conroe docks, boathouses and bulkheads, and the rates each community pays are on the page about Lake Conroe property tax rates by community.
Does a Lake Conroe house need flood and windstorm insurance?
Flood cover is a separate policy. The Texas Department of Insurance notes that most home insurance policies do not cover flood damage and that a flood policy usually starts 30 days after it is bought, so it is arranged before closing rather than after. Whether a lender requires one depends on the zone the FEMA flood map gives the lot, and a lot's height against the 207-foot easement is a second thing to read from its survey.
Redfin shows First Street's estimate for ZIP code 77356, the Montgomery ZIP code that takes in Bentwater, Walden, April Sound and Grand Harbor: a minor flood risk overall, with 516 properties, 5% of the total, likely to be severely affected by flooding over the next 30 years. Windstorm cover works differently from the coast. The state's designated catastrophe area, where the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association writes wind and hail policies, is the 14 first-tier coastal counties and parts of Harris County east of Highway 146, and Montgomery County is not among them; away from the coast, the department says, a homeowners policy probably includes wind and hail, sometimes with a separate deductible.
What does this guide leave to each address's own records?
The flood zone, the school campus, the taxing units and whether each dock and bulkhead is licensed are all set lot by lot. The appraisal district account, the FEMA map for the parcel, the survey and the river authority's records answer them for one address.
One subject at a time
What else should you know about Lake Conroe?
Lake Conroe Docks, Boathouses and Bulkheads: What the River Authority Permits Below 201 Feet
On Lake Conroe the San Jacinto River Authority controls the land up to the 201-foot contour, so a private dock, boathouse or lift needs its license and a yearly fee of $0.188 a square foot, $60 at least, and a bulkhead needs its own permit.
Lake Conroe Property Taxes: County, School District, City and Utility District Rates by Community
For tax year 2025, the units HAR lists for five Lake Conroe communities add up to between $1.6155 per $100 of value in Grand Harbor and $2.1752 in Point Aquarius. The school district, a city and a utility district make the difference.
Lake Conroe's Water Level: Normal Pool, Storm Releases and the Lowering Policy
Lake Conroe is held at 201 feet above sea level and passes storm water through the dam once it rises higher. Since 2024 it is lowered ahead of storms only when the City of Houston asks, by up to six inches at a time under the 2024 protocol.
Questions & answers
Lake Conroe questions, answered
What is Lake Conroe, and when was it built?
Lake Conroe is a water supply reservoir on the West Fork of the San Jacinto River in Montgomery and Walker counties, north of Houston. The San Jacinto River Authority and the City of Houston built it together beginning in 1969; the dam was finished in January 1973 and the lake had filled by October 31, 1973.
It was built as a backup water supply for Houston, and since September 2015 it has also supplied drinking water in Montgomery County. The authority's Lake Conroe Division runs the dam and regulates what is built on the water. About 5,000 acres of the lake lie in the Sam Houston National Forest. The lake, its communities and what a waterfront purchase involves are in the Lake Conroe neighborhood guide.
Who owns the water in Lake Conroe?
The State of Texas owns the water. The San Jacinto River Authority holds the permit to store it, and the right to use up to 100,000 acre-feet a year is split one-third to the authority and two-thirds to the City of Houston. The city also pays two-thirds of the authority's Lake Conroe Division operating costs.
On request from the city, the authority releases the city's water through the dam into the San Jacinto River, where it flows to Lake Houston. That is how the lake is lowered ahead of a storm, and why those releases come out of the city's share. The history of those releases is on the page about Lake Conroe's water level and the lowering policy.
How big and how deep is Lake Conroe?
The San Jacinto River Authority's list of lake facts gives Lake Conroe about 150 miles of shoreline, an average depth of 20 feet and a watershed of about 450 square miles. Its normal level is 201 feet above mean sea level, and the lake reaches about 21 miles from the dam up the West Fork of the San Jacinto River.
The authority's own page gives two figures for the lake's area, 21,000 acres in its history and 19,640 surface acres in its list of facts, so neither is quoted here as the lake's size. Its highest recorded level was 206.24 feet, on August 28, 2017, and its lowest 192.68 feet, on December 2, 2011.
What are the main neighborhoods on Lake Conroe?
The larger communities on the lake include Bentwater, Walden, April Sound and Grand Harbor, which carry Montgomery mailing addresses, and Point Aquarius and Seven Coves, which carry Willis addresses. By HAR's 2025 count, Walden is the largest of the five HAR profiles here, with 3,385 single-family homes, and Grand Harbor the smallest, with 701.
The communities differ in age as well as size: HAR's median year built runs from 1994 in April Sound to 2007 in Grand Harbor. Each has its own owners association and deed restrictions, and several have their own utility district, so the tax rate and the dues change from one to the next. HAR's figures for five of them, side by side, are in the Lake Conroe housing market update.
Is a Lake Conroe house with a Montgomery or Conroe address inside that city?
Usually not. Mailing addresses around the lake read Montgomery, Conroe or Willis, but most of the lakeside communities checked here are outside any city and pay no city tax. Montgomery County MUD 18, which HAR lists for Bentwater, says all of its land lies in the City of Conroe's extraterritorial jurisdiction. April Sound is the exception among the larger communities: Conroe annexed it in 2015.
An extraterritorial jurisdiction is the band outside a city's limits where it has some authority over development but levies no property tax. A mailing address names a post office rather than a city's limits, so the parcel's appraisal district account is the record to read. The rates for April Sound and the unincorporated communities are on the page about Lake Conroe property tax rates by community.
What school district is Lake Conroe in?
Three school districts reach the lake. HAR's tax tables put Bentwater, Walden, April Sound and Grand Harbor in Montgomery ISD and Point Aquarius in Willis ISD, and the Census Bureau's address lookup places a Seven Coves address in Willis ISD. Conroe ISD is the third district around the lake, so the district follows the address.
Each district sets its own attendance zones and can change them, so the campus a house is zoned to comes from the address rather than from the community's name. The three districts also tax at different rates: for 2025, $1.0912 per $100 in Montgomery ISD, $1.0349 in Willis ISD and $0.9496 in Conroe ISD, with lower rates adopted in each for 2026.
What are the HOA dues in Bentwater on Lake Conroe?
The Bentwater property owners association charges $996 a year for a home, plus $150 to its street repair fund, on its schedule for July 2025 to June 2026. When a home sells, a $500 transfer fee and a capital reserve fee of $597.60 are due at closing, and some sections add a neighborhood fee on top.
The Bentwater club is separate from the owners association. Its fee schedule of March 2025 lists initiation fees from $5,000 for a social membership to $65,000 for Grand Pines, and monthly dues from $217 to $968 as of April 2025. Bentwater is also in Montgomery County MUD 18, whose tax is on the page about Lake Conroe property tax rates by community.
What does it cost to own a home in Walden on Lake Conroe?
Walden's community association set its 2026 maintenance fee at $1,150 a year, due each January 1, and some Walden sections charge a section fee on top of it. Walden is also split between two utility districts, MUD 8 and MUD 9, which taxed at $0.2880 and $0.3700 per $100 of value for 2025.
Walden's deed restrictions differ by section. The restrictions for Section 8 require any lease to run at least 180 consecutive days, so the section's own documents are worth reading before an offer. A home in Walden also pays Montgomery County, the hospital district, Montgomery ISD and an emergency services district; the totals are on the page about Lake Conroe property tax rates by community.
Do I need flood insurance for a house on Lake Conroe?
Most home insurance policies do not cover flood damage, the Texas Department of Insurance notes, and a flood policy usually starts 30 days after it is bought. Whether a lender requires one depends on the zone the FEMA flood map gives the lot. On the lake, the lot's height against the river authority's 207-foot flowage easement is a second thing to check.
Redfin shows First Street's estimate for ZIP code 77356, which takes in Bentwater, Walden, April Sound and Grand Harbor: a minor flood risk overall, with 516 properties, 5% of the total, likely to be severely affected by flooding over the next 30 years. The lake's record level, 206.24 feet in August 2017, came within a foot of the easement line. The elevation certificate and the seller's disclosure are the documents to read for one house.
Is a Lake Conroe house in the Texas windstorm insurance area?
No. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association writes wind and hail policies in the state's designated catastrophe area, which the Texas Department of Insurance lists as the 14 first-tier coastal counties and parts of Harris County east of Highway 146. Montgomery County is not among them, so a Lake Conroe house is outside the association's area.
Away from the coast, the department says, a homeowners policy probably includes wind and hail, sometimes with a separate deductible for windstorm damage, so the deductible is the line to read on a quote. Flood is still separate: most home policies leave it out, and a flood policy usually has a 30-day wait. Both are worth pricing before the option period ends, since the premiums are part of the monthly cost of the house.