E said:

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77018

Just looked again, my HCAD market value didn't change this year but the appraised went up full 10%. My new appraised is about $4k less then HCAD market value.

Does HCAD take total bedroom into account? It says mines a 3/1 but it's really a 2/1. Don't know if that will help lower the appraised value.

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you can't fight the appraised value, only the market value. your appraised will continue to go up until it catches the market value. but yes, the number of bedrooms absolutely affects the computer generated valuation of your home and how they compare it to comps in your neighborhood. dropping a bedroom could drop your market value. and if you get that down enough it could help appraised value since it can't be more than market.

If my appraised = market, and they lower the market, they had better damn well lower my appraised.

42% in 77019. Of course they haven't applied my homestead and tried to jack it up.

When did you buy?

February 2016

So homestead cap will be removed for 2017. It will kick back in next year.

Maybe I'm showing my ignorance here, but the homestead was removed for 2016 and applied for the homestead to start in 2017. So you're saying they're getting one more year of no homestead and taking the opportunity to jack up my appraised value by 42%.

Bigballin said:

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Maybe I'm showing my ignorance here, but the homestead was removed for 2016 and applied for the homestead to start in 2017. So you're saying they're getting one more year of no homestead and taking the opportunity to jack up my appraised value by 42%.

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Yes, that's exactly how it works. Homestead exemption doesn't go into effect until you've owned the home for one full calendar year. So, yours will take effect on Jan 1, 2018. HE wasn't removed in 2016 - your 2016 taxes were based on whatever exemptions the previous owners had on Jan 1 of that year. It is removed for 2017, as this year is HCAD's chance to "readjust the value".

Thanks for the info gents. Not what I wanted to hear but appreciate the education

I wouldn't say the homestead exemption is removed because you will still get an exemption on the rates and value for 2017. The difference is HCAD gets the opportunity to lift the 10% cap for one year which is what you are describing.

Homestead benefits you both from the 10% cap as well as a reduced tax rate.

Either way, my overall tax bill is shooting up.

77018 - no increase. Pleasantly surprised by that.

Homestead exemption applies for you only in the first year where it is your primary residence on January 1 and the first year is not capped by the 10% because you didnt have the exemption for that property the prior year but you do get all the exemptions (usually 25,000 and/or 20%) that the taxing jurisdictions must or elect to give homeowners.

If the house did not have an exemption for 2016 (it was removed) it was likely because the previous owners moved before 1/1 and applied for one somewhere else for 2016 otherwise you should have gotten the benefit for 2016 if it was their primary residence on 1/1/16

77019 - Appraised finally caught up with market

But I just closed on selling that house and sold for $40k higher than market, so I guess I shouldn't complain now that the new owners will probably be getting a market increase next year

Okay, got it. Appreciate the dog pile. At the end of the day, it's all a racket.

Let me guess, your market now is roughly what you paid on the house in a market transaction one year ago? If so, thats not a racket, thats what you should have known would happen. Also youre going to pay on 20% lower than that due to your exemption and probably another 25000 less on the school taxes.

gougler08 said:

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the new owners will probably be getting a market increase next year

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They can still argue uniform & equal.

If HCAD sent out an army of appraisers to inspect properties and roll up their sleeves I would give them more credit. Instead, from 2013 to 2016 they posted articles on the homepage, linking to Forbes articles that stated Houston was the fastest growing city, most affordable housing, best restaurants, etc. and proceeded to bend us all over. Now things slow down, and you don't hear anything and they still bend us over.

Bigballin said:

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Let me guess, you're trying to win the internet? Yes, I probably should have known. It's a racket when I'm paying through the nose in property taxes and my roads are like driving through a third world country.

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No, no, no. You've got it all wrong. I'm part of the racket.

El Duke said:

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If HCAD sent out an army of appraisers to inspect properties and roll up their sleeves I would give them more credit. Instead, from 2013 to 2016 they posted articles on the homepage, linking to Forbes articles that stated Houston was the fastest growing city, most affordable housing, best restaurants, etc. and proceeded to bend us all over. Now things slow down, and you don't hear anything and they still bend us over.

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The CAD has a pretty much impossible job, they are never going to know as much about your property as you do. As far as taxes going up, across the board, my opinions are posted elsewhere. The CAD is not really the bad guy, it's the taxing jurisdictions that view jurisdiction wide raises in property values as God given increases to their budget. What should happens is that when property values go way up, tax rate goes should go down, then their budget stays the same or only increases moderately and taxes you pay stays the same even though values went up.

I think that's the law already.

I love arguing with HCAD. It is the one area of my life that I can directly affect how much I pay in taxes. All others is "vote if you don't like the tax rate."

Currently they basically can't set a rate that would increase their budget by roughly more than 8% without triggering (well I say "triggering" but really there are hoops to jump through for even that as it requires a petition) a rollback election to approve the tax rate. Whether 8% is a "moderate increase" is debateable, but I imagine I know where most fall.

As far as I have seen, in practice there is almost no real recourse for taxpayers to stop a taxing jurisdiction from grabbing up to 8% in yearly increases when values rise, whether due to apathy, or lack of information, etc.

An exception to this is Houston, where the city charter was amended to cap the revenue increase that the city of Houston is allowed to collect from property taxes. In the three years since I have owned my condo, for example, my value has gone up by 21%, but my tax bill to the city of Houston has only gone up 12% because the city charter now limits them to only raising their property tax revenues by 4.5% max per year and so the city tax rate is forced to decline every year when values go up.

77379 - pending

77079 - pending

our house: 303 to 330

friend on next street over, same size, same age house: 312 to 315

what tha #$#@%!!!!

77433. 0% change this year. Will start looking at numbers because I know there are several houses near me that have been on the market for a bit.

77493 up 6%

But similar to the poster above they have an extra bedroom listed. What is the process I need to go through to get this changed and the market value amended? Newish homeowner...

No change this year or last. Which is 80k less that what I bought in June of '15. Not sure how I missed the huge increase but I won't complain.

77041

Drop of close to 9%. Was a bit surprised but will take it.

77018 - GO - no change, but a transfer of value from improvements to land. My home is now worth about 8k. I officially live in a year down. So, you know, I got that going for me.

no change, first time in 4 years

77055

Market up 15% ???

Appraised up 10%

77077

Market up 12%

Appraised up 10%.

I have protested the last three years. Last year, after protest, they kept the same as previous year. No way my value went up 12% this year. I can't imagine how they can even defend that. It probably went down.

77008

Market - Same

Appraised - Same

Purchased August 2013. Didn't file Homestead first year(rookie mistake) so got a 32% increase 14-15. Have protested every year and its gone down 12% since that initial bump. Will protest again this year.