The Same Drought Is Billing Boerne Buyers Two Different Ways

Two buyers are set to close on Boerne homes the same week this fall. Both are relocating from out of state. Both are paying roughly the same price. One is buying inside the city limits on Boerne Utilities water. The other is buying five miles out in unincorporated Kendall County, on a private well.

They are living through the identical drought. They are not living through the identical consequence.

The city buyer will see a bill that climbs a little more each year as Boerne finishes a five-year infrastructure overhaul. The well buyer will see something else entirely: a groundwater district that can legally cut how much water comes out of the ground, with no rate increase to soften it and no surface-water contract standing behind it. As of early September 2026, Kendall County's Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District is under Stage 4, its most severe drought classification, and that single designation moves through the city and the county in two completely different directions.

Until this year, a buyer had almost no way to find out which version of that story they were walking into before signing a contract. That changed on July 1, 2026, when a brand-new Texas Real Estate Commission form made it the seller's job to say so in writing.

Why the Same Drought Splits Into Two Bills

Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District covers all 660 square miles of Kendall County, and its jurisdiction is specific: it regulates groundwater wells, not the city's surface water contracts. When the district moves to Stage 4, the city of Boerne has said publicly that the designation reduces Boerne Utilities' allowable groundwater well pumping by 40 percent.

That sounds like it should hit every Boerne water customer the same way. It does not, because of where the city's water actually comes from. Boerne Utilities blends water from its own wells, from Boerne City Lake, and from a contract with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority that draws from Canyon Lake. When the well allocation gets cut, the city leans harder on that GBRA contract to cover the gap. It is not free water. The city has explained that its GBRA allocation runs on a constant-flow basis that can only be adjusted upward, meaning Boerne effectively pays for capacity it books ahead of time, drought or not. That cost shows up in the rate structure everyone on city water already pays.

A private well in unincorporated Kendall County has no GBRA contract sitting behind it. When Cow Creek GCD tightens the tap under Stage 4, a well owner does not get to buy a substitute supply from a river authority. The restriction is the whole story.

That asymmetry is the part a median price, a square footage number, or a school district boundary will never tell a relocating buyer. It only shows up when you ask where the water actually comes from and what happens to that source when the county goes dry.

The Paper Trail Finally Catches Up

For years, a buyer's only real signal about a property's water situation was whatever the seller happened to mention. Texas closed that gap with Standard Contract Form TREC No. 61-0, the Water Notice: Seller's Disclosure About Groundwater and Surface Water Rights, adopted May 4, 2026 and mandatory for contracts signed on or after July 1, 2026. It is a standalone form, separate from the general Seller's Disclosure Notice required under Texas Property Code Section 5.008, and it comes with its own rules.

The form asks a seller to disclose, based on their own knowledge:

• Whether the property has a water well, in use or not
• Whether that well is registered with a groundwater conservation district
• Whether the property sits inside a groundwater conservation or subsidence district
• Whether the property has a pond, lake, or water tank located on it
• Whether any groundwater rights have been severed, sold, or leased
• Whether the property's water actually comes from a well on a neighbor's land, under some kind of agreement

A seller is only exempt from providing the form if every one of those statements comes back false, which is a high bar for most acreage in Kendall County given that Cow Creek GCD's boundary is the entire county. In practice, that means most rural Boerne-area listings will carry this disclosure going forward, where they carried nothing comparable before.

The form is now built into Paragraph 7 of most standard TREC contracts, which means it arrives alongside the rest of the closing paperwork rather than as an afterthought a seller volunteers if asked. For a buyer comparing a city-limits listing against a county acreage listing, that is the first time both properties are required to answer the same water questions in the same format, on the record, before anyone signs off on the option period.

What a Well Actually Costs Before You Have Moved a Single Box

The disclosure form tells a buyer what exists. It does not tell them what it costs to fix, replace, or wait on, and that gap matters most for anyone building new or buying land rather than a finished house.

Properties inside Boerne's city limits connect to municipal water and follow the city's International Building Code amendments, which keeps utility costs largely predictable. Properties in unincorporated Kendall County work through a different process entirely. Septic systems require an On-Site Sewage Facility permit issued by the Kendall County Health Department after soil testing by a licensed sanitarian. Wells require a separate drilling permit regulated by Cow Creek GCD. Buyers should plan on three to six weeks for these specialized permits to clear, longer if the initial site plan comes back incomplete, since an incomplete submission resets the clock rather than just pausing it.

The well itself is not a small line item. Drilling in Kendall County commonly runs $15,000 to $30,000, driven by depth through limestone and by water quality once the driller hits it. That is money a city-limits buyer never budgets for, and it is a number worth getting in writing from a driller before a contract goes firm, not after.

The Rate Hike Is Coming Either Way

City water is more predictable than a well, but it is not getting cheaper. Boerne's average residential water, sewer, and stormwater bill is set to climb to $89.97 a month starting in October 2026, an 11.6 percent jump from the current $80.59, and it is only the third of five planned annual increases tied to a Capital Improvement Plan exceeding $100 million, with roughly two-thirds of that spending going directly into water and wastewater infrastructure. The pressure behind that plan is straightforward: Boerne's population has more than doubled since 2010, from about 10,500 residents to roughly 25,000 today, and Kendall County has grown right alongside it.

There is one lever city-water customers have that well owners do not. Boerne Utilities has offered conservation rebates since May 2024, providing $100 to $150 in bill credits for residents who install rainwater collection tanks of at least 50 gallons, add rain or freeze sensors to irrigation systems, or complete a professional irrigation efficiency audit. It will not offset five years of rate increases, but it is real money back for buyers willing to plan their landscaping around it from day one.

A Few Questions Worth Asking Before You Write an Offer

Does every seller in the Boerne area have to fill out the new water form? Only if all six conditions on the form are true can a seller skip it, and for most Kendall County properties with a well, a groundwater district boundary, or a pond on site, at least one of those conditions will not be true. Assume you will see this form on rural listings and ask for it early if it has not already been provided.

Does a private well complicate financing? If the loan is VA or FHA, expect a water quality test to be a standard part of the closing process on any well-supplied property. That test takes time to schedule and return results, so buyers on a well should plan for it well before the closing date rather than treating it as a last-minute item.

Can I find out a property's Cow Creek GCD registration status before I make an offer? Yes. The district's records are public, and confirming a well's registration and any documented flow rate before writing an offer is a cheap way to avoid a surprise during the option period.

A house with a great view and no way to confirm its water story is not a deal, it is a question mark with landscaping. The new disclosure form gives buyers a real document to point to. Understanding what Cow Creek GCD's Stage 4 actually does, and to whom, is what turns that document into leverage instead of just paperwork.

If you are weighing a move to Boerne and trying to figure out whether a specific property's water situation makes sense for how you actually plan to live there, Kelly Jo Gonzalez works this exact question with relocating buyers across the Hill Country every week. Start Your Hill Country Journey and get a straight answer before you fall for the view.