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Quick answer: Cambridge Estates is a new-construction community in Prosper, Texas, in Collin County, built by First Texas Homes. It has two sections under one name: the main First Texas Homes section, and Cambridge Estates - Harwood, built by Harwood Homes, which First Texas describes as its sister brand. The two sections sit at very different sizes and price points. The community is zoned to Prosper ISD, and First Texas publishes that there is no MUD or PID. I'm Nitin Gupta, a Broker Associate with Competitive Edge Realty and 480+ closed DFW transactions, and here is what I would settle before you tour.

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Two sections, two brands, one name

This is the thing to understand first, because it changes which homes you are actually comparing.

The main Cambridge Estates section is First Texas Homes, with roughly fourteen buildable plans and a broad square footage range running from the low two-thousands into the mid four-thousands. It is the volume section, and it covers a wide span of sizes and prices.

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Cambridge Estates - Harwood is a separate section under the Harwood Homes brand, which First Texas identifies as a sister brand. It sits at a materially larger product: minimum lot widths around eighty-five feet, minimum lot sizes near thirteen thousand square feet, and homes starting near four thousand square feet. At the time of writing it has been listed as coming soon with limited inventory.

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So "Cambridge Estates" covers two quite different purchases. A buyer who tours the First Texas models and a buyer who tours the Harwood section are looking at different lot programs, different home sizes and different price bands under a shared community name. Establish which section you are in before you compare anything to anything else.

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They are related brands rather than unrelated competitors, which generally means the contract mechanics will be closer to each other than they would be between, say, two independent builders. Confirm that rather than assume it. Ask whether the purchase agreement, the deposit structure, the change-order process and the warranty administration are identical between the two sections, and get the answer in writing. See my First Texas Homes buyer FAQ, First Texas Homes incentives, and builder contracts in Texas.

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The facts, as published

• Location: Prosper, TX 75078, Collin County. The Harwood section is addressed on St. Peter Lane.

• Builders: First Texas Homes in the main section, Harwood Homes in the Cambridge Estates - Harwood section. First Texas describes Harwood as a sister brand.

• First Texas section: approximately fourteen buildable plans plus quick move-in homes, roughly 2,182 to 4,506 square feet.

• Harwood section: minimum lot width around 85 feet, minimum lot size around 12,998 square feet, homes from roughly 3,950 square feet.

• School district: Prosper ISD. Published sources name Boyer Elementary, Reynolds Middle and Prosper High.

• Community features: greenbelt, walking and jogging trails, a pavilion, picnic and barbecue areas, open green space, and three water features.

• HOA: billed annually, in a range consistent across the two sources I checked. Confirm the current amount, what it covers and the increase history with the resale certificate.

• Special districts: First Texas publishes "No MUD or PID" for this community. One listing portal nonetheless displays a "special tax" label. See below.

• Pricing: published ranges differ between sources, and First Texas's own page gives two different upper bounds in different places. Get the current price sheet in writing.

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Figures above are drawn from publicly published builder and listing sources as of October 2026, and those sources do not fully agree. This page is an independent buyer's guide. I am not affiliated with First Texas Homes or Harwood Homes, and nothing here is a builder advertisement.

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The "special tax" label, and why it is probably wrong

One major listing portal shows Cambridge Estates with an estimated total tax rate and labels it a special tax or assessment. First Texas Homes, on its own community page, publishes "No MUD or PID."

Those look contradictory. They probably are not, and the explanation is worth understanding because this mislabel shows up across new-construction listings all over DFW.

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Here is the distinction. A Municipal Utility District generally exists because land sits outside city limits in the extraterritorial jurisdiction, so there are no city taxes and no city services, and the district funds the infrastructure instead. A residential Public Improvement District generally sits inside city limits, so city services continue and the assessment sits on top of the tax bill. Either one is a genuine extra line. An ordinary combined property tax rate, made up of the county, the city, the school district and the college district, is not a special assessment at all. It is just your tax rate.

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The Town of Prosper does not operate residential PIDs. So in a Prosper community, an estimated combined rate displayed under a "special tax" heading is very likely a portal categorizing an ordinary rate under the wrong label, not evidence of a district.

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Do not take my word for it either. Pull the taxing-unit list for the specific lot address from the Collin Central Appraisal District, and ask the title company for the tax certificate. Those two documents name every entity that will bill you, and they settle the question permanently. A builder page, a portal and a sales counselor are all secondary sources. More in my MUD versus PID guide and the MUD, PID and HOA FAQ.

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Lot selection, and the 85-foot question

The Harwood section's minimum lot width of roughly eighty-five feet is wide by current north Collin County standards, and on a minimum lot size near thirteen thousand square feet it is the main structural difference between the two sections.

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Width determines whether a three-car configuration fits and in what orientation, how much genuinely usable side yard you get, where a pool can physically sit, and what the rear setback leaves you to work with. The gap between a standard lot and an eighty-five-foot lot is not an options-sheet line item, it is which homes you are permitted to build at all.

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So tell me what you want in the back yard before you tell me which plan you like. A pool, a covered outdoor kitchen or a sport court will eliminate lots, and that constraint belongs at the front of the search rather than after you have committed to an elevation.

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What I look at on every lot: what backs up to it and what is planned to back up to it, which way the rear elevation faces and what that does to a west-facing patio in August, how the grade and drainage run, where the lot sits relative to the greenbelt and the water features, and whether the site will physically take the pool you are picturing. Lot selection is the one decision in new construction with no remedy. You can change the finishes. You cannot move the house.

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More in buying in phase one of a master-planned community.

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The water features and the greenbelt

Cambridge Estates publishes a greenbelt, trail network, pavilion, picnic and barbecue areas and three water features. That is a meaningful amenity package for a community of this scale, and lots backing the greenbelt or the water tend to carry premiums.

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Two questions worth asking before you pay one. First, which amenities are built and open today, which are under construction with a date, and which are planned with no date. Get that in writing rather than from a site plan rendering. Second, who maintains the water features and the greenbelt, and what does that cost the HOA annually. Water features are attractive and they are not free, and in a community where the HOA also funds trails and a pavilion it is worth reading the budget rather than the brochure.

Request the HOA documents and the resale certificate, and read the budget and the reserve study. See the MUD, PID and HOA FAQ.

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Schools

Cambridge Estates is in Prosper ISD. Published sources name Boyer Elementary, Reynolds Middle and Prosper High, and the listing portals carrying those names attach their own disclaimer that the community may not sit in those attendance zones.

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I do not rate or compare school districts. What I do is confirm the attendance assignment for your specific lot address with Prosper ISD in writing before you sign. Prosper ISD is growing and opening campuses, which means boundaries get redrawn. A builder page, a listing portal and a school-rating app are all repeating information that can be stale by the time you close.

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Property taxes and budgeting

Budget from the whole number rather than principal and interest. Your monthly cost includes the tax escrow, insurance, HOA dues and any mortgage insurance, and in this price range the tax escrow is a substantial line on its own.

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Confirm the current combined rate with the Collin Central Appraisal District rather than relying on a portal's estimate, which is typically a prior-year figure and is sometimes mislabeled as discussed above. Background in DFW property tax rates by suburb. For your own situation, talk to a tax advisor.

Location and the commute test

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Cambridge Estates sits in Prosper with US 380 running east and west and the Dallas North Tollway as the primary route south toward the Legacy and Downtown Dallas job centers.

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Drive the commute before you commit to a floor plan. Not what the mapping app says at two in the afternoon. Drive it on a weekday at the hour you would actually make it, in both directions, and do it before your option period starts rather than during it. In north Collin County the gap between the posted drive time and the real one eliminates more communities than price does. Start with DFW commute times, then go drive it.

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How Cambridge Estates compares in Prosper

Cambridge Estates covers an unusually wide span under one name, which is its main advantage: the First Texas section reaches further down the price range than most of Prosper's newer communities while the Harwood section reaches up. If you are not yet sure which band you are in, that makes it an efficient first stop.

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If you want wide lots specifically, compare it against Park Place, which is gated with 80-foot Shaddock lots and a separate Grand Homes section, and Prosper Ridge, a small Southgate Homes enclave on 80-foot lots with no amenity package. For a smaller community with walkable retail and included lawn maintenance, see StarView. For the Brookhollow master plan, see Wandering Creek at Brookhollow, Lakewood at Brookhollow and Dominion at Brookhollow.

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For full amenity packages at larger scale, look at Star Trail, Windsong Ranch, Legacy Gardens and Lakes at Legacy. Wider context in Prosper real estate and things to know before moving to Prosper.

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Register me before your first sales office visit

This is the most common and most expensive mistake relocating buyers make, and it happens before anyone signs anything.

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Builders maintain policies governing when a buyer's agent must be disclosed, and those policies generally require disclosure at or before your first visit. There is a window, and when it closes you may lose the ability to have an agent on the transaction at all. With two sections and two brands here, ask specifically whether registration covers both, because it may not.

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In Texas we will also sign a written representation agreement before I show you anything. That is how the law works now, and it protects you as much as it does me. How I am compensated in a builder transaction is disclosed in writing before you tour, and we cover it on our first call rather than at the contract table. See buyer representation agreements in Texas.

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And the person at the sales desk is good at their job, knows the product cold and works for the builder. That is not a criticism. It is the job description. They represent the other side of your transaction.

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What I handle on a Cambridge Estates purchase

The list price is rarely where the movement is on a new build. Where there is room depends on the builder, the section, the specific home and where that phase sits in its sell-out, and a community with a volume section and a coming-soon luxury section does not behave like a single-product community. Knowing where to look is the work, and it is a conversation rather than a web page.

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What I check on every new-construction file: the deposit structure and when the money goes hard, how the contract treats price adjustment and completion timing, how change orders get priced and approved, who administers the warranty and what it actually covers, what conditions attach to any incentive, and what a financing incentive tied to the builder's affiliated lender costs you in rate or fees against an outside quote. On that last one, read should you use the builder's preferred lender and get an outside quote before accepting anything.

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The inspections are yours to schedule, and a municipal inspection is not the same thing as someone working for you. Pre-drywall has the shortest window and the highest stakes. See the pre-drywall inspection guide and the new construction walkthrough checklist. Before you sign, read deposits on a Texas builder contract and what a Texas new home warranty actually covers.

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For the full process, see the DFW new construction buyer guide and the new construction buyer FAQ.

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Buying from out of state

Most of my Prosper conversations start with someone in another state working out whether Prosper is even the right answer. That is the right order, and narrowing the location is the part I do.

I shoot video walkthroughs of communities and model homes so you can shorten the list before booking a flight. My YouTube channel carries community and model tours across Prosper, Frisco, McKinney and the rest of north DFW. The process is in buying new construction in DFW from out of state and the DFW relocation buyer's guide.

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Cambridge Estates: buyer questions

Who builds at Cambridge Estates in Prosper?

First Texas Homes builds the main section. Cambridge Estates - Harwood is a separate section built by Harwood Homes, which First Texas describes as its sister brand. Confirm which section a home sits in before comparing it to anything, because the lot programs and home sizes differ substantially between them.

What is the difference between Cambridge Estates and Cambridge Estates - Harwood?

The First Texas section carries roughly fourteen buildable plans across a wide square footage range starting in the low two-thousands. The Harwood section sits on wider lots, with minimum widths around eighty-five feet and minimum lot sizes near thirteen thousand square feet, and homes starting near four thousand square feet. They are different products under one community name.

Is there a MUD or PID at Cambridge Estates?

First Texas Homes publishes "No MUD or PID" for this community, and the Town of Prosper does not operate residential PIDs. One listing portal nonetheless displays an estimated combined tax rate under a "special tax" label, which is very likely a categorization error rather than evidence of a district. Confirm per lot by pulling the taxing-unit list from the Collin Central Appraisal District and requesting the tax certificate from the title company.

How much do homes cost at Cambridge Estates?

Published figures differ between sources, and First Texas's own page gives two different upper bounds in different places. The two sections also occupy different price bands. Request the current price sheet for the specific section in writing rather than relying on an aggregator. Your actual number depends on the lot, the structural options and the finish level.

What school district is Cambridge Estates in?

Prosper ISD. Published sources name Boyer Elementary, Reynolds Middle and Prosper High, with their own disclaimer that the community may not sit in those attendance zones. Confirm the assignment for your specific lot address with Prosper ISD in writing before you sign.

What amenities does Cambridge Estates have?

Published features include a greenbelt, walking and jogging trails, a pavilion, picnic and barbecue areas, open green space and three water features. Ask which are built and open today, which are under construction with a date, and which are planned. Also ask what maintaining the water features costs the HOA annually.

Do I need my own agent to buy at Cambridge Estates?

You are not required to have one. You will be sitting across from someone who works for the builder either way, and a builder contract is not the standard TREC resale form. Register your agent at or before your first sales office visit, and ask whether that registration covers both sections. In Texas you will also sign a written representation agreement before touring. See the questions I would ask any buyer's agent, including me.

Touring Cambridge Estates? Let's talk first.

Send me four things and I will come back with something useful instead of a brochure:

1. Your move-in date, or the date you need to be working

2. Which communities you are touring, and whether you have already visited either Cambridge Estates section

3. Where you will be commuting to, and how often

4. Your price range, and whether you want the wider Harwood lots or the broader First Texas plan range

That last question usually settles itself in one call, and it decides which half of this community you should be looking at.

 

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