Stafford is a city in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area, located mostly in Fort Bend County with a small portion extending into Harris County. The 2020 census counted 17,666 residents within a compact footprint of about seven square miles. Its position at the junction of U.S. 90 Alternate and the Southwest Freeway places it roughly 30 minutes from downtown Houston, with convenient access to the Energy Corridor, Sugar Land, and the Texas Medical Center. Stafford is best known for a distinction unique among Texas's larger cities: it has no municipal property tax. The city abolished its property tax decades ago and instead funds operations primarily through sales tax revenue, a policy that applies to both commercial and residential properties and has long served as a defining feature of the city's identity and economic appeal. Residents still pay county, school district, and community college property taxes. The community's roots reach back to the mid-1800s as a settlement along the railroad and early roadways southwest of Houston. Through the 20th century it grew with the expansion of the Houston region, and by the 1980s it had become an established suburb with many residents commuting into the city. Stafford also made education history by forming its own municipal school district in 1982, taking over schools that had been split between neighboring districts and creating a single district covering the entire city. Today Stafford functions as a diverse, family-oriented suburb with a significant employment and commercial base of its own, including retail, light industrial, and corporate office uses along its major corridors. The city's housing mix ranges from established single-family neighborhoods to a broad stock of apartments, supporting a community that includes both homeowners and renters. Stafford suits value-conscious families and professionals who want Greater Houston location and connectivity, a distinctive tax structure, and a culturally diverse, no-frills suburban environment — all within easy commuting distance of the region's largest employment centers.