Hays County, TX
What LandBenchmark can tell you about a parcel in Hays County — and, just as importantly, what it can't.
- Land area
- 676.9
- sq mi
- Water area
- 1.9
- sq mi
- County FIPS
- 48209
- Center
- 30.061, -98.029
Area and center from the US Census Bureau 2023 Gazetteer.
Measured terrain around the Hays County centroid
- Centroid elevation
- 344
- m (1,129 ft)
- Terrain relief
- 166
- m spread (p95−p5, ~20–40 km window)
The county center sits at about 344 m above sea level. Elevation across the sampled window spreads 166 m — hilly terrain by our banding (flat <30 m · gently rolling 30–100 m · hilly 100–300 m · mountainous >300 m). These are county-scale context, not parcel measurements — a specific parcel gets its own slope, flood and usable-acreage readings when analyzed.
Elevation measured 2026-07-21 from the AWS Terrain Tiles (terrarium encoding, z10).
Data available for Hays County
- Owner of record, parcel number, assessed value and the county's parcel boundary — Texas publishes these as open data (Texas Geographic Information Office — StratMap Parcels). LandBenchmark reads them directly.
- No township/range legal description. Texas is a metes-and-bounds state with no PLSS grid.
- FEMA flood zones, wetlands, soil survey and NCCPI soil productivity — the federal layers, all free and all available here.
- 56 measured signals from satellite imagery and public records — slope and usable acreage, observed surface water, vegetation trend, wildfire and seismic hazard, access and neighboring land use. Each one cites its method, its source, and the date it was observed.
LandBenchmark has no listings and does not know what is for sale in Hays County. It analyses a parcel you point it at. It is an automated Phase-1 desk screen, not a survey, a flood determination, or a substitute for on-site inspection.
Common questions about land in Hays County
Can I see who owns a parcel in Hays County?
Yes — Texas publishes parcel ownership as open data (Texas Geographic Information Office — StratMap Parcels), so a LandBenchmark report on a Hays County parcel shows the owner of record, parcel number and assessed value, cited to the state dataset.
How hilly is Hays County?
Around the county center, measured elevation spreads 166 m across a ~20–40 km window — hilly terrain by our banding. Individual parcels vary: a report measures the actual slope and usable acreage of the parcel you point it at.
What can LandBenchmark measure for a parcel in Hays County?
56 measured signals, each cited with source and observation date: FEMA flood zone plus surface water observed in multi-year imagery, USFWS wetlands, USDA soil survey and productivity, slope and usable acreage, wildfire and seismic hazard, access and surroundings. What a satellite cannot verify — title, zoning, perc results, water rights — goes on a human-verify checklist naming the Hays County offices that can.