The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act created the Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) program - a tax law that lets investors defer capital gains in eligible census tracts designed by each state.
And last year, a new law made the program permanent and created “Opportunity Zones 2.0.” Instead of keeping the original 2018 zones forever, states will now select a new set every 10 years.
Texas just submitted its proposed tracts on September 4th. I have mapped them against the old tracts. You can browse that map here :
https://geopen.io/maps/texas-opportunity-zones.html
Dallas County goes from 18 to 60 tracts
Old Tracts (Orange) vs. New Tracts (Blue)
Harris County goes from 105 to 51
Austin Area Changes
Which Counties have more or less this round
To be eligible, a tract must have a median family income (MFI) less than 70% of state/metro MFI; or poverty rate greater than or equal to 20% and MFI less than or equal to 125% of state/metro MFI.
In order to select the 605 (out of Texas’ 2,420 eligible tracts), the Texas Economic Development & Tourism Office reviewed more than 1,200 proposals from over 175 organizations across 114 counties, according to the RGV Business Journal.
And a reminder - these new Opportunity Zones still have to be certified, so they’re not final yet. The Treasury has 30 days to certify and the new Opportunity Zones will go into effect January 1st, 2027.
Here are a few official links just in case you don’t trust me:
https://gov.texas.gov/business/page/opportunity-zones
https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/tax-policy/data-transparency/qualified-opportunity-zones
As always, if you’d like this data or mapping file, email me at robert@themap.io