"We have nothing planned on [FM] 1097. There's no plan."
A Texas Department of Transportation engineer said that at a Willis town hall on Aug. 12, 2026. The road he meant is the one most Willis errands, school runs and freeway trips depend on. Six weeks later, a roundup of local road projects reported that the FM 1097 widening was 96% complete.
Both statements are true because they describe different stretches of the same road. If you're comparing Willis with other towns around Lake Conroe, this matters more than any price figure. The widening work has gone toward the lake. The new homes, the new shopping center and the worst backups sit at the interchange with I-45 and east of it. For those stretches, the state's own estimate for any major fix is at least ten years away.
Where the four lanes actually went
TxDOT has been widening FM 1097 in pieces since 2021. The segments run in order from I-45 toward Lake Conroe:
- I-45 to Anderson Road. In July 2022, Community Impact reported this first section complete pending a final inspection.
- Anderson Road to Lake Conroe Hills Drive. This section went from two lanes to four plus a continuous left-turn lane. It was scheduled to run from February 2021 through the fourth quarter of 2023 at a cost of $14.69 million.
- Lake Conroe Hills Drive to Blueberry Hill(s) Road. This section is also going from two lanes to four with a continuous center turn lane. It was 7% complete in mid-2022.
That third segment is the one still in the news. TxDOT's Sept. 4, 2026 update put it at 96% complete. The listed timeline runs from the second quarter of 2022 through the third quarter of 2026, which ended last week. Its reported cost has grown along the way, from $14.72 million in 2022 to $20.21 million in the September 2026 report. As of this writing, we haven't found a published confirmation that the final 4% is done. You can check its status yourself on the TxDOT project tracker.
Put together, TxDOT has spent roughly five years building a four-lane road with turn lanes from the freeway out toward Lake Conroe.
Where the backups are
At the August town hall, the complaints came from somewhere else. Residents described long backups near the H-E-B shopping center and along the I-45 feeder road. They said queues on FM 1097 already reach back toward the freeway and make it hard to turn into older neighborhoods and new RV parks. Others pointed to FM 1097 East, which has no dedicated turn lanes, and to drivers going 20 to 30 mph over the limit.
Residents linked that congestion to Moran Ranch, and the project's original plan shows why. When Community Impact described it in January 2022, Moran Ranch was a 500-acre mixed-use development at the southeast corner of FM 1097 and I-45. It planned about 900 homes from M/I Homes and Lennar, 170 acres of commercial land, and an I-45 frontage-road link between FM 830 and FM 1097. Later, a 252-unit, nine-building apartment community called Fidelis Willis was announced inside Moran Ranch, next to The Market at Willis. Its 2024 announcement projected completion in the third quarter of 2026. We haven't found anything confirming that it has opened.
Those plans put homes, groceries and apartments on one corner of the interchange. The widening program put its money on the far side of that interchange, toward the lake.
Why the east side waits a decade
The engineer at the town hall explained why no quick fix exists. Even if the state chose a preferred design today, he said, construction would be at least ten years away because of environmental reviews, right-of-way purchases and required public meetings. A railroad overpass on FM 1097 is among the options TxDOT is reviewing, but that concept is preliminary and unfunded.
The one near-term step he mentioned is cheaper. He said he would ask TxDOT to study retiming the traffic signals along FM 1097 and linking them together. He also noted that any change would take weeks or months to get through TxDOT's review. We haven't found a published report since August confirming that the signals were retimed.
The interstate side isn't moving quickly either. A direct connector from northbound I-45 to eastbound Hwy. 242 is under construction. TxDOT's Sept. 4 update revised its progress down from 20% to 10% complete, and the timeline now runs through the third quarter of 2028.
What the city is building in the meantime
Willis doesn't control FM 1097 or I-45. TxDOT and Montgomery County handle large projects on both. At the town hall, the city manager said the city has a comprehensive plan but historically hasn't had the money to build major roads. Its current approach is to pay cash to rebuild about six or seven local streets a year without raising property tax rates or taking on new debt. He named Longstreet Road, Gerald Street, Janet Street, Willow Drive, Reese Street and Cude Cemetery Road as examples.
That's useful detail if you're looking at a specific home. The streets inside older parts of town may be rebuilt before the state highway connecting them changes at all. City officials also said they plan to hold quarterly community meetings on traffic and bring TxDOT officials back for updates.
Two Willis ZIP codes, one late-summer month
Willis has two ZIP codes. City Hall's address uses 77378, and 77318 is the town's other ZIP. Neither ZIP's boundaries follow the widening segments, so their sold data can't be matched to a stretch of road. What the August 2026 numbers do show is how far apart the two halves of the Willis market can be in the same month.
| Area | Month | Median sold price | Sales | Days on market |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willis 77318 | Aug 2026 | $324,000 | 49 | 45 |
| Willis 77378 | Aug 2026 | $245,965 | 28 | 95.5 |
| Willis 77378 | Jul 2026 | $242,000 | 43 | 59 |
| Willis 77378 | Jun 2026 | $269,000 | 35 | 50 |
| Willis 77378 | May 2026 | $240,950 | 44 | 34 |
| HAR Conroe Southeast | Aug 2026 | $286,250 | 99 | 47 |
These figures come from Houston Association of Realtors sold data for each ZIP and for the Conroe Southeast market area. For a regional benchmark, HAR's Greater Houston report released Sept. 9, 2026 put August single-family inventory at 5.3 months and average days on market at 54.
Three things stand out:
- Price. In August 2026, the median sold price in 77318 was about $78,000 higher than in 77378, with 49 sales against 28. The 77318 homes were also selling in about half the time.
- Days on market in 77378. The median rose every month this summer, from 34 days in May to 95.5 in August, while the median price barely moved. Sellers there aren't cutting prices so far. It's simply taking longer to find a buyer.
- Sample size. Twenty-eight sales is a small number. A few slow-selling homes can swing a single month a lot, so read these as snapshots, not a trend.
Different sources also slice Willis differently. Community Impact's August roundup found that home sales fell year over year in all eight of its Conroe and Montgomery coverage zones. The same report said homes in its zone covering Willis and the areas east of Lake Conroe spent 37.8% less time on the market than a year earlier. That zone is drawn differently from either ZIP and measures change over a year, not month to month. Its headline and the 77378 numbers can both be accurate. Treating "Willis" as a single number hides how different its two ZIP codes look right now.
How this shows up during a purchase
The road question tends to come up at a predictable point in a Willis purchase. It usually lands after the showing and before the option period ends, when a buyer drives the school or work route at 7:30 a.m. for the first time. A few checks are worth running against any Willis address:
- Which FM 1097 segment does the home feed into? A home on the widened stretch between Anderson Road and Blueberry Hill(s) Road uses four lanes with a center turn lane. A home that turns onto FM 1097 East, or reaches I-45 through the H-E-B area, faces the conditions residents described in August.
- What's left to build nearby? Moran Ranch's 2022 plan called for about 900 homes. If parts of it, or neighboring apartments, aren't finished yet, the traffic you see today isn't the full load.
- What are the city and TxDOT saying now? Updates from the quarterly traffic meetings and any signal retiming will show up in local reporting before they show up in a listing.
Our buyer's guide covers the option period itself. Our earlier Willis vs. Conroe comparison covers the lake-lifestyle side of the decision.
Quick answers
Is the FM 1097 widening in Willis finished? The Lake Conroe Hills Drive to Blueberry Hill(s) Road segment was 96% complete as of TxDOT's Sept. 4, 2026 update. Its timeline ran through the third quarter of 2026. Final completion hadn't been publicly confirmed as of Oct. 8, 2026.
Is TxDOT planning to widen FM 1097 east of I-45? At the Aug. 12, 2026 town hall, TxDOT said no FM 1097 widening project is currently funded. It added that large fixes, including a possible railroad overpass, are at least a decade from construction.
Where can I follow updates? Try the TxDOT project tracker, Community Impact's Conroe and Montgomery coverage, and the City of Willis, which plans quarterly traffic meetings.
If you're looking at homes in Willis, The Lux Team can map each address to its FM 1097 segment and drive the route with you at rush hour before your option period ends. Request a White‑Glove Consultation, and we'll plan your Willis showings around the commute.
