I will be paying extra properly taxes for.a long time because my builder was 6 weeks late finishing the house. Our house was supposed to finish end of 2020 but got delayed to Jan 2021 so I couldn't file homestead until 2022 since I didnt live in the house Jan 1 2021. 2021 value was 294k. 2022 value was 562k. My mortgage company then took this jump and their algorithm somehow determined my taxes would double again in 2023 and forced an extra $1k/month into my escrow. I called multiple times and sent them my actual 2023 property tax statement showing my taxes went down and they lowered it $100. If they can't figure out a better estimate this year I'm just going to pay lump sum myself and skip escrow.

In reply to shertown04 Where did you build? Was the initial amount only calculating the taxes based on the land value? That's something that usually happens with new builds. I always tell my clients to make sure the builder tells them to calculate what the monthly payment is going to be with land plus improvements. I knew someone from my former school where I taught at that had a freak out moment when his monthly payment went up by about $500-600 because the payment was based on the land alone.

Market values here (central West) went up 70% from '21 to '22.

70%? That's a new one. The numbers I've seen is a 40% increase to end of 22 but a 5-10% decrease in 23.

Texans are paying 7th highest property taxes

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The states that pay the lowest real estate property taxes are:

• No. 1: Hawaii 0.27 percent
• No. 2: Alabama 0.39 percent
• No. 3: Colorado 0.49 percent
• No. 4: Nevada 0.50 percent
• No. 5: South Carolina 0.53 percent
• No. 6: West Virginia, Louisiana, Delaware, Utah (tied) 0.55 percent
• No. 10 Arizona, Idaho, and District of Columbia (tied) 0.56 percent

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New Jersey had the highest property tax rate in the country with 2.33 percent.

Texas Republicans want to eliminate property taxes

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Residents in Texas pay an effective tax rate of about 1.7 percent, one of the highest in the country, according to Rocket Mortgage. A median list price for a home is close to $285,000, with average annual property taxes of nearly $4,800.

During Tuesday's vote, Texas Republican voters told their party leaders they want to eliminate property taxes. The question was posed to Republican primary voters as a way to help shape the GOP's legislative priorities. Since it wasn't an official ballot initiative, it won't immediately change the property tax system in Texas, but could put pressure on legislators.

Part of the push for tax cuts in the state is spurred by the state's massive budget surplus that has hit record levels of $33 billion, according to The Texas Tribune.

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I recently did see this when I went to vote last week. Would this actually be able to get passed?

TCAD needs to get under control. Market is down, but new record high for my house.

Appraisal came in lower this year than '23 here in Round Rock.

My appraised value in '24 dropped over $100k from '23. Our neighborhood absolutely got destroyed in '23 because we're sandwiched between new builds. I guess someone actually looked at the values this year because they are pretty accurate. Of course we're still playing catchup on the 10% cap. TCAD.

I'm in NW Austin and our appraisal went up $86k. Land value stayed same, house went up about 17.5%. Completely random - most houses on our street went down, some stayed the same and one other house went up a grand total of $6k. I'll be protesting (again) - there is no objective data that supports such an increase.

market value jumped 300K. TCAD is out of ****ing control.

Mine when up a bunch, again. Always does, so I dont expect anything different.

I just took a look, and it's nearly doubled in 5 years. Five!!

SE Austin - down 2.5% from last year. Still plan on having Ownwell challenge and see what the final result will be.

they're going to squeeze you regardless of appraisal. They know their budget and how much theyre allowed to increase without going to voters. If your appraisal doesnt increase enough to meet budget growth (2.5 or 3.5% depending on jurisdiction) they will raise the rate. The state keeps buying down rates, but the locals eat up the savings before it gets to homeowners (when they can). If your jurisdiction is voting on anything other than a no new revenue rate your taxes are going up, regardless of appraisal.

Down 2.5% in Bastrop County. Lots of new homes still being built around us, but the available ones seem to be taking longer to clear the market.

Experience with appraisal protest firms?
The good and the bad?
Some of the online reviews indicate there are a number of bad ones.
Thanks

In reply to momlaw We have used Five Stone.

Success is relative in the market the last few years, so more of establishing a pattern and history for me.

Hopefully this year they have success.

In reply to momlaw I used one other, but they started charging fees even if they didn't save you any money. I switched over to TaxProtestMap. They only charge if they save you $. No issues with them so far!

Here is a link to signup ($15 credit):

https://www.taxprotestmap.com/invite/m3gdkb7et9

I protest myself and Ive never not had it come out in my favor. How much do you pay a company to protest?

In reply to Ragnar Danneskjoldd

Ragnar Danneskjoldd said:

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I protest myself and Ive never not had it come out in my favor. How much do you pay a company to protest?

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I had the same experience as you and wasn't worth my time. TaxProtestMap charges 33% of what they save you. Seems like alot but you are still saving. Better than nothing.

https://www.taxprotestmap.com/dashboard/faq

when you say 33% of what you save, does that mean savings on your appraisal or the resulting savings in property taxes?

In reply to Ragnar Danneskjoldd Typically on the taxes they reduced.

In my case, they have reduced the value, but not the taxes since the appraised value shot up so high and the 10% rule is being applied.

No taxes saved, no % for them. I do get charged a flat rate of under $200 if they do not save anything for their effort. I am fine with that since my time is worth more than that.

I use Ownwell. This is my second year but last year they were accurate in their predicted protest value (lowered it by $35K) so I am using them again.

https://www.ownwell.com/?owl=36DA7Z9B9

Tennessee doesn't have an income tax and sports some of the lowest property taxes in the nation. There's either some serious fraud going on in our state grovernment or massive social services but sumptn is up.

In reply to Reload8098

Reload8098 said:

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Tennessee doesn't have an income tax and sports some of the lowest property taxes in the nation. There's either some serious fraud going on in our state grovernment or massive social services but sumptn is up.

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Tennessee doesn't have a border with Mexico they need to defend because the feds won't.

In reply to SteveBott

SteveBott said:

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Pretty sure that was just a primary voter dream wishlist. There is no real push in the state legislature, yet, to abolish the property tax. Mainly because there is no viable replacement. (Think income tax)

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I would overwhelmingly support a state income tax over property tax. I want to retire one day and own my home. Right now, I am set to rent it from the County.

In reply to txags92

txags92 said:

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Reload8098 said:

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Tennessee doesn't have an income tax and sports some of the lowest property taxes in the nation. There's either some serious fraud going on in our state grovernment or massive social services but sumptn is up.

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Tennessee doesn't have a border with Mexico they need to defend because the feds won't.

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But I don't think that explains decades of high property taxes.

In reply to austinag1997 How about a higher sales tax? That way even illegals are contributing instead of just being a money suck.

In reply to Reload8098

Reload8098 said:

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txags92 said:

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Reload8098 said:

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Tennessee doesn't have an income tax and sports some of the lowest property taxes in the nation. There's either some serious fraud going on in our state grovernment or massive social services but sumptn is up.

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Tennessee doesn't have a border with Mexico they need to defend because the feds won't.

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But I don't think that explains decades of high property taxes.

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What mechanism does Tennessee use to fund education? The border issue is not a recent thing in Texas, and a big part of our education funding issue is how to fund districts with low tax bases, a large number of students overall, and high numbers of kids that require ESL or other remedial assistance to catch up to where they should be. Then again a big part of our issues are how much money gets spent to fund cadillac football programs, while ignoring other parts of the educational system.

Lottery and some of the property tax. Memphis has the highest property taxes in TN and the worst schools. We moved to Knoxville/Farragut and the property taxes are some of the lowest property taxes in the nation. Farragut public Highschool average SAT is over 1300.

In reply to Reload8098

Reload8098 said:

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Lottery and some of the property tax. Memphis has the highest property taxes in TN and the worst schools. We moved to Knoxville/Farragut and the property taxes are some of the lowest property taxes. Farragut public Highschool average SAT is over 1300.

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I am old enough to remember when the lottery was going to fix texas school funding…