LIVING NEAR LOCKHEED MARTIN AND NAS JRB
WELCOME TO THE WEST SIDE
WHICH GATE DO YOU ACTUALLY DRIVE TO?
Written by Eric Duran — Founder and Realtor, The Fort Real Estate · Updated October 20, 2026
The short answer: the two gates sit about three miles apart at opposite ends of one runway, so the one you report to decides your neighborhood more than your budget does. White Settlement is closest to the Lockheed Martin gate at four to eight minutes; River Oaks is two minutes from the NAS JRB main gate. Across the 13 neighborhoods below, medians run from $215,000 to $704,500, and the property tax rate swings 0.562 of a percentage point between cities — about $3,372 a year on a $600,000 house.
If you are moving to Fort Worth for a job at Lockheed Martin or an assignment at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, it is easy to assume this is one destination. It is not. Air Force Plant 4 and the air station sit at opposite ends of the same runway, and the entrances are about three miles apart.
Lockheed’s entrance is 1 Lockheed Blvd, off Spur 341 at Clifford Street in White Settlement. The Navy’s main gate is 1303 Keith Pumphrey Drive in Fort Worth, 76114, reached from the southeast by way of Alta Mere and TX-183. A home that is five minutes from one can be twenty from the other, in the wrong direction around an active airfield, twice a day.
That is the most useful thing to know before you start looking, and it is the question this page is built around.
One more thing up front: River Oaks has its own East Gate, open 6:00–9:00 AM and 3:00–6:00 PM on weekdays and closed on holidays. On a rotating or irregular shift that gate may not be open when you need it, and your commute from River Oaks becomes a very different number.
The table below gives typical drive times to both entrances from a named intersection in each neighborhood, arriving 6:30 AM on a weekday. These are Google’s typical-traffic estimates for that slot rather than stopwatch readings, so you can reproduce them yourself.
| Neighborhood | Measured from | To Lockheed | To NAS JRB gate | Closer to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| River Oaks | Long Ave & River Oaks Blvd | 12–20 min / 6.6 mi | 2 min / 0.5 mi | The gate |
| Westworth Village | White Settlement Rd & Westworth Blvd | 8–16 min / 4.6 mi | 4 min / 1.8 mi | The gate |
| River District | White Settlement Rd & Roberts Cut Off Rd | 10–18 min / 5.5 mi | 4 min / 1.4 mi | The gate |
| Burton Hill | Fursman Ave & Roaring Springs Rd | 9–18 min / 4.9 mi | 5–7 min / 2.9 mi | The gate |
| White Settlement | S Cherry Ln & White Settlement Rd | 4–8 min / 1.4 mi | 9–16 min / 5.8 mi | Lockheed |
| Ridgmar | Genoa Rd & Ridgmar Blvd | 8–14 min / 4.5 mi | 7–14 min / 4.5 mi | A genuine wash |
| Ridglea North | Calmont Ave & Ridglea Ave | 7–12 min / 3.9 mi | 8–14 min / 4.8 mi | Lockheed, slightly |
| Ridglea Hills | Camp Bowie Blvd W | 9–16 min / 4.9 mi | 9–18 min / 5.8 mi | Lockheed, slightly |
| Arlington Heights | Bryce Ave & Clover Ln | 10–18 min / 6.8 mi | 12 min / 4.1 mi | Closer in miles to the gate |
| Lake Worth | Jacksboro Hwy & Azle Ave | 12–24 min / 7.9 mi | 9–14 min / 4.4 mi | The gate |
| Benbrook | Benbrook Blvd & Mercedes St | 12–22 min / 7.3 mi | 12–24 min / 8.6 mi | Lockheed, slightly |
| Lakeside | Lakeside centroid | 16–26 min / 7.5 mi | 14–20 min / 8.1 mi | Gate on time, Lockheed on distance |
| Walsh | Walsh Ranch Pkwy & Walsh Ave | 14–22 min / 10.8 mi | 16–24 min / 12.8 mi | Lockheed |
| Ventana | Ventana Pkwy area | 14–22 min / 11.7 mi | 16–24 min / 13.6 mi | Lockheed |
Four neighborhoods are decisively base commutes and a long haul to Lockheed: River Oaks, Westworth Village, River District and Burton Hill. White Settlement is the mirror image — four to eight minutes to Lockheed, nine to sixteen to the gate. It is the only neighborhood here that sits genuinely at the Lockheed entrance.
Ridgmar is the interesting case: 4.5 miles to both, within a minute of each other. If one person in the household works at the plant and the other at the base, that is your answer.
The west side at a glance — October 2026
Two entrances, about three miles apart, at opposite ends of one runway
14 neighborhoods within a 26-minute drive of one gate or the other
Median sale prices from $215,000 to $705,000 across those neighborhoods
Property tax rates from 1.996% to 2.558%, depending which city you are in
Closest to a gate: River Oaks, 2 minutes and half a mile from the NAS JRB main gate
Sources: NTREIS closed sales for the twelve months ending October 2026, pulled October 14, 2026; Tarrant and Parker County Appraisal District 2026 adopted tax rates; Google Maps typical-traffic estimates arriving 6:30 AM. Market conditions change — contact The Fort Real Estate for current numbers.
WHAT YOUR BUDGET BUYS
Every neighborhood within a reasonable commute of either entrance, sorted by median sale price. Twelve months of closed sales from NTREIS, pulled October 14, 2026.
| Neighborhood | Median sale | $/sqft | Median size | Median built | % of original ask | Median days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White Settlement | $215,000 | $170 | 1,350 | 1960 | 96.3% | 31 |
| Lake Worth | $229,000 | $172 | 1,410 | 1960 | 97.0% | 24 |
| River Oaks | $250,000 | $201 | 1,380 | 1951 | 96.7% | 27 |
| Benbrook | $339,000 | $187 | 1,936 | 1978 | 97.4% | 27 |
| Lakeside | $361,000 | $184 | 2,071 | 1960 | 95.8% | 38 |
| Burton Hill | $365,000 | $221 | 1,680 | 1956 | 97.6% | 37 |
| Ridglea North | $474,210 | $261 | 1,801 | 1942 | 97.9% | 10 |
| Ventana | $475,000 | $197 | 2,545 | 2024 | 95.6% | 66 |
| Ridglea Hills | $515,000 | $235 | 2,260 | 1955 | 96.9% | 22 |
| Westworth Village | $525,000 | $225 | 2,300 | 2018 | 96.2% | 19 |
| Ridgmar | $540,000 | $231 | 2,360 | — | 97.6% | — |
| Walsh | $595,707 | $210 | 2,859 | 2024 | 94.0% | 64 |
| River District | $704,500 | $274 | 2,430 | 2016 | 97.7% | — |
The counterintuitive result is in the last two columns. The two newest communities on the list are the two slowest sellers and the two biggest discounts. Walsh, median year built 2024, closed at 94.0% of original asking price after 64 days. Ridglea North, median year built 1942, closed at 97.9% after 10 days.
That is not a comment on build quality. It is what happens when a resale competes against a builder standing in the same neighborhood with an incentive package — rate buydowns, closing costs, upgrades. If you are buying new construction out there, your leverage is real. If you are selling a three-year-old house where the builder is still active, your competition is not the last resale down the street. It is what the builder is offering this month.
Two things the table flattens. Ridglea is not one market — Ridglea West closed at a median $186,250 while Ridglea proper closed at $615,000, same name, 3.3 times apart. And Burton Hill spans a city line: the Fort Worth side is a 1956 ranch market at $365,000, the Westworth Village side a 2018 rebuild market at $537,450 — within about $1.50 per square foot of each other.
CAN YOU ACTUALLY BUY HERE ON ORDERS?
The hard constraint on a move with orders is usually not the budget. It is the calendar — a short house-hunting trip and a reporting date that does not move. So the question worth asking before you fall for an area is how many houses actually change hands there in a year.
| City | Single-family homes closed, 12 months |
|---|---|
| Benbrook | 289 |
| White Settlement | 156 |
| Lake Worth | 57 |
| River Oaks | 53 |
| Lakeside | 34 |
| Westworth Village | 29 |
| River District | 10 |
Benbrook closes as many homes in under two weeks as the River District does in a year. If your dates are fixed, that gap decides whether you spend your trip choosing between houses or waiting for one to appear.
The thin end of that list is not a bad place to live. It is a bad place to need something within thirty days. The River District is the clearest case at ten sales a year — new, genuinely appealing, and often with nothing at all for sale. Westworth Village and Lakeside both run under three closings a month. If one of those is where you want to be, start watching it well before orders land, or plan on renting for a year and buying on your own schedule instead of the Navy’s.
Counts are closed single-family sales from NTREIS for the twelve months to October 14, 2026, by city boundary.
WHAT THE CITY LINE COSTS YOU
Every address on this page pays the same four countywide taxes — Tarrant County, the JPS hospital district, Tarrant County College and the Tarrant Regional Water District. What changes is the city and the school district, and that is where the whole spread comes from.
Annual property tax at three price points:
| City (2026 total rate) | $300,000 | $500,000 | $750,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Westworth Village (1.996%) | $5,988 | $9,980 | $14,970 |
| Benbrook (2.098%) | $6,294 | $10,490 | $15,735 |
| Fort Worth / FWISD (2.227%) | $6,681 | $11,135 | $16,703 |
| Lake Worth (2.236%) | $6,708 | $11,180 | $16,770 |
| White Settlement (2.407%) | $7,221 | $12,035 | $18,053 |
| Lakeside (2.469%) | $7,407 | $12,345 | $18,518 |
| River Oaks (2.558%) | $7,674 | $12,790 | $19,185 |
The gap between the lowest and highest rate on this list is 0.562 of a percentage point. On a $600,000 house that is about $3,372 a year — roughly $281 every month you own it, and unlike a mortgage rate it never refinances away. Two houses you would tour on the same afternoon can sit on opposite sides of that line.
These are the 2026 adopted rates published by Tarrant County, checked against each taxing unit rather than blended into a county average. The figures are before homestead and other exemptions, which lower your taxable value — your actual bill will be smaller, but the gap between cities stays. Walsh and Ventana each add a public improvement district assessment on top of the rates above, so ask for the current assessment on any specific address.
If you are active duty, one note on the housing allowance: BAH is benchmarked to rental costs, not mortgages, and was never designed to cover one. Most buyers combine it with base pay and often a spouse’s income. I am a Realtor, not a lender — run your own numbers with a VA-experienced lender before relying on them.
WHICH SCHOOL DISTRICT COMES WITH THE HOUSE?
Five school districts serve the addresses on this page, and a Fort Worth mailing address does not mean Fort Worth ISD.
| District | Serves | 2026 rate |
|---|---|---|
| Fort Worth ISD | Westworth Village, Benbrook, Burton Hill, Ridgmar, Ridglea, River District, Ventana | 1.029099 |
| White Settlement ISD | White Settlement | 1.152800 |
| Lake Worth ISD | Lake Worth, Lakeside | 1.226500 |
| Castleberry ISD | River Oaks | 1.246900 |
Fort Worth ISD is the lowest of those four rates. Leaving it for a smaller district costs more in school tax, not less — Castleberry sits 0.218 of a point above it, about $871 a year on a $400,000 house.
Walsh is the fifth district and the exception here: it sits in Aledo ISD and partly in Parker County, so neither the rates above nor the Tarrant County base apply the same way. Ask for the specific numbers on any Walsh address.
Districts assign by address, not by ZIP code or city name, and two houses on the same street can feed different campuses. Confirm the campus with the district before you write an offer — there is more on how that works in Fort Worth ISD on our elementary school zones page.
HOW LOUD ARE THE JETS, REALLY?
This is the question everyone asks, so here is my own experience with it.
I lived in White Settlement for a few years. The jets were very loud. I also lived in Walsh, about eleven miles west, and they reached that far every now and then but not often. I would expect Ridgmar, White Settlement, and probably Lake Worth and River Oaks to hear them regularly — the west side neighborhoods hear it most.
Here is the honest part. In my experience it has never driven a buying decision. It comes up in conversation, people ask about it, and then they buy the house anyway. I am not going to tell you it is nothing, because it is not nothing. I am telling you that in practice it has not changed offers.
On the official side: the published noise contours and Accident Potential Zones for the airfield come from a Joint Land Use Study covering Benbrook, Fort Worth, Lake Worth, River Oaks, Westworth Village, White Settlement and Tarrant County. That study was published in March 2008. Eighteen years is long enough to matter, and F-35 production at Plant 4 ramped up well after it. I am not going to tell you which contour a specific neighborhood falls in, because I could not verify that from a current source and I will not guess on a page you might make a decision from.
If noise is a real concern, go stand on the street at the time of day you would actually be home. That will tell you more than any map.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How far is Lockheed Martin from NAS JRB Fort Worth?
About three miles. Lockheed’s entrance at 1 Lockheed Blvd sits at the west end of the runway in White Settlement; the Navy’s main gate at 1303 Keith Pumphrey Drive is at the east end, in Fort Worth 76114. They share an airfield but they are separate entrances with separate approaches, and a commute to one is not a commute to the other.
Which neighborhoods are closest to the Lockheed Martin gate?
White Settlement, decisively — four to eight minutes from S Cherry Lane and White Settlement Road, about 1.4 miles. After that, Ridglea North at seven to twelve minutes and Ridgmar at eight to fourteen. Walsh and Ventana are fourteen to twenty-two minutes but cover ten to twelve miles, which is the trade-off for newer and larger.
Which neighborhoods are closest to the NAS JRB main gate?
River Oaks at two minutes and half a mile, then Westworth Village and River District at four minutes, then Burton Hill at five to seven. All four are a considerably longer drive to Lockheed, which is the point of asking the question before you buy.
Can I actually find a house here on a PCS house-hunting trip?
It depends more on inventory depth than on budget. Benbrook is the deepest market on the west side, and White Settlement, Lake Worth and River Oaks each run 24 to 31 median days on market, so there is usually something to walk. The River District is the opposite: ten single-family homes closed there in the entire last twelve months, so in any given week there may be nothing for sale at all. With a fixed reporting date, start where the volume is.
Which neighborhoods near the base are most affordable?
White Settlement at a median $215,000, Lake Worth at $229,000 and River Oaks at $250,000, based on twelve months of closed sales through October 2026. All three are older, smaller housing stock — median year built 1951 to 1960, median size 1,350 to 1,410 square feet.
Why are new-build homes in Walsh and Ventana selling below asking?
Because resales are competing with the builder. Walsh closed at a median 94.0% of original asking price after 64 days, and Ventana at 95.6% after 66 days — the two slowest and deepest-discounted markets on this page, despite being the two newest. When a builder is still active in a community and offering rate buydowns and closing costs, a three-year-old resale two streets over has to answer that package. Good news if you are buying there; something to price for if you are selling.
Is Burton Hill in Fort Worth or Westworth Village?
Both, and it changes the numbers. The Fort Worth side around Roaring Springs is a 1956 ranch market with a median sale price of $365,000. The Westworth Village side is a 2018 rebuild market at $537,450. They sell within about $1.50 per square foot of each other, which means you are buying square footage and age, not location, when you cross that line.
How much are property taxes near the base?
They range from 1.996% in Westworth Village to 2.558% in River Oaks, using 2026 adopted rates. Fort Worth with Fort Worth ISD is 2.227%, White Settlement 2.407%, Benbrook 2.098%, Lake Worth 2.236% and Lakeside 2.469%. Walsh adds a public improvement district assessment on top of a 2.366% base, and Ventana sits inside a PID as well — ask for the current assessment on any specific address before you write an offer, because it will not show up in a rate table.
Can you hear the jets from these neighborhoods?
The west side hears them most. I lived in White Settlement and they were very loud; I lived in Walsh, eleven miles west, and they reached that far occasionally. In my experience it comes up in conversation and does not change offers. The published noise contours date from a 2008 Joint Land Use Study, old enough that I would not rely on it for a specific address — go stand on the street at the hour you would be home.
Do I need a VA loan to buy near the base?
No. A VA loan is a benefit, not a requirement, and plenty of buyers near the airfield are civilians at the plant rather than service members. If you are eligible, zero down and no mortgage insurance usually make it the strongest option — but compare it against conventional financing with a lender who writes both.
SOURCES
Closed sales. NTREIS, twelve months to October 14, 2026. Medians, price per square foot, days on market and percent of original ask are calculated from closed single-family sales only.
Property tax rates. Tarrant County adopted rates for tax year 2026, summed per jurisdiction: city, school district, Tarrant County, the JPS hospital district, Tarrant County College and the Tarrant Regional Water District. Figures are before homestead and other exemptions, which lower your taxable value.
School districts. The district serving each city or neighborhood. Districts assign by address, not by ZIP code, so confirm the campus with the district before you write an offer.
Drive times. Estimates between each gate and each neighborhood. Test your own route at the hour you would actually be driving it.