The Texas Office of the Governor's nominations list puts 60 of the state's 608 Opportunity Zone 2.0 nominations in Dallas County, 51 each in Harris and Hidalgo counties, 34 in Bexar County and 24 in Lubbock County: 220 of the 608 in five counties. Thirty of the 106 counties get a single tract. By Treasury's September 2026 eligibility data, 184 of the 608 are rural tracts. All 608 are on Treasury's eligible list, which counts 2,431 Texas tracts; 25% of that, rounded up, is 608, so Texas nominated the most it could. Two of the picks, both in Travis County, were added to the eligible list in Treasury's September update. The nominations are pending Treasury certification; certified zones take effect January 1, 2027.
The list. The Office of the Governor's Opportunity Zones page (checked October 17, 2026) says Gov. Greg Abbott “nominated 608 census tracts in 106 Texas counties as potential Opportunity Zones across the state's total 6,896 census tracts,” and that the Texas Economic Development & Tourism Office (EDT) submitted the nominations to Treasury on September 4, 2026. The page links a nominations list (PDF, created September 25, 2026) that gives each tract's county and 11-digit GEOID; we count 608 unique tracts in it. When we first reported the filing in September, the state's figure was 605 tracts in 105 counties. In 2018, Texas nominated 628 tracts in 145 counties, per the same page.
By county. By our count of the list, Dallas County has 60 tracts, Harris County 51, Hidalgo County 51, Bexar County 34 and Lubbock County 24: 220 of the 608 in five counties. El Paso (22), Webb (21), Cameron (20), Tarrant (20) and Galveston (17) complete the top ten, and 30 of the 106 counties have one tract each. Counties used very different shares of their eligible pools. On Treasury’s September 23, 2026 eligibility data, Harris County has 500 eligible tracts and got 51 picks (10%), Dallas County 60 of 279 (22%), Hidalgo County 51 of 133 (38%), Lubbock County 24 of 42 and Galveston County 17 of 26. Of the 187 Texas counties with at least one eligible tract, 81 have none on the list; the largest is Montgomery County, with 17 eligible tracts. Every nominated tract appears on our Texas zone page and the OZ map; you can also check one with the census tract lookup.
Rural picks. Treasury's eligibility data flags a tract as rural when it is “comprised entirely of a rural area.” By that flag, 184 of the 608 nominations are rural and 424 are not. The rural picks are spread across 84 counties, led by Harrison, Jasper and Lamar counties with 6 each. Texas has 528 rural eligible tracts in all. For investors the label matters: OZ 2.0 investments through a qualified rural opportunity fund get a 30% basis step-up after five years instead of 10%, per IRS Notice 2026-55.
Checked against the federal list. All 608 GEOIDs are on Treasury’s September 2026 eligibility data, which lists 2,431 eligible Texas tracts. Of those, 606 are also in the Rev. Proc. 2026-14 appendix, which listed 2,420 Texas tracts. The other two, both in Travis County (48453002324 and 48453002326), were added in Treasury's September update. Governors may nominate up to 25% of their eligible tracts under Rev. Proc. 2026-14. Rounded up, 25% of 2,420 is 605 and 25% of 2,431 is 608, so the list uses the full cap on Treasury's updated count. Pennsylvania's DCED applies the same arithmetic: five added tracts raised its cap from 217 to 218. Our tracker now shows 608 as the Texas cap. Using our 2010-to-2020 tract crosswalk, 199 of the 608 lie fully inside a current (2018) Opportunity Zone and 6 partly.
How Texas chose. According to the governor’s page, EDT asked economic development organizations and county judges to submit eligible tracts. It weighed federal eligibility; local support through incentives, rebates and agreements; project viability, favoring sites where private capital can deploy within 24 to 48 months; and geographic balance.
What happens next. The nominated tracts are not Opportunity Zones until Treasury certifies them under Rev. Proc. 2026-14. The governor’s page says official certification is expected by November 28, 2026 and that OZ 2.0 designations run 10 years from January 1, 2027; current (OZ 1.0) zones remain in effect through December 31, 2028. Texas is listed as filed on our nomination tracker.
Original reporting by Sarah Whitfield for Opportunity Zone Invest, an independent OZ 2.0 research site. Facts are drawn from the primary sources cited above per our editorial standards. Nothing here is tax, legal, or investment advice.
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