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Old 07-10-2011, 02:34 PM
 
4 posts, read 6,901 times
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Hello! My family is possibly relocating to Houston this fall, and looking at properties near work (along the energy corridor), I've noticed that taxes on properties in the $200,000 range went from a little over $1000/year in '07/'08 to over $3000 in '09 and $5000 in '10. What's the story on the recent hikes? Makes me a bit nervous about buying property, even though it appears from a distance that there are some great deals on the market right now.
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Old 07-10-2011, 02:51 PM
 
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Go to www.hcad.org. Type in the address of house you're interested in and you can check the tax breakdown for the past 5 yrs, including the tax you'll pay for 2011.
Usually, the rates and house valuation don't go up much from year to year. It sounds like the house you're looking at is a newer construction. In that case, the first year, the owner is still being taxed for just the land. The 1-2 subsequent years, the valuation amount goes up significantly due to the house being added to the land. Another scenario where tax spikes is that the old house had a cap on its tax (ie, owner is over 65yo), and once the new young owner buys it, the cap is removed and house is taxed at fair value.
Once you buy the house, if you paid significantly higher or lower than the current tax appraisaal value, your new tax appraised value will the be amount you paid and so your tax will go up or down to reflect that.
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Old 07-10-2011, 03:58 PM
 
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Property taxes in Texas suck. Welcome.
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Old 07-10-2011, 04:05 PM
 
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But Harris County gives big (and I do mean big) tax breaks to Over-65 homeowners and many states/counties dont.
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Old 07-10-2011, 05:44 PM
 
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The houses we're looking at were all built in the 60s, so I don't think it is an issue of a sudden increase in value. The break-downs I've looked at actually show a decrease in property valuation, but an increase in taxes. And looking back at '05/06, the taxes were in the $3000/yr range.

I was just curious if there had been a big tax break in '07/08, and in general, I was wondering if it is typical for Houston property taxes to fluctuate so wildly.
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Old 07-10-2011, 05:46 PM
 
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@texasfirewheel - I'm glad to hear about the over-65 tax break. It will be another few decades before it would affect me, but as a matter of principle it bothers me when an old couple retires in the house they've owned free and clear for decades and then can't afford to pay the property taxes. My grandmother's property taxes are phenomenally high in Birmingham, and only extreme diligence in filling out paperwork makes it possible for her to live in the house she and her husband built over fifty years ago.
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Old 07-10-2011, 06:19 PM
 
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Perhaps it was a Cap and the cap was removed.
Older properties in the 77077 and 77079 zips tend to have roughly 2.5% tax. For a 200k home, that's around 5k before any exemptions/caps. To my knowledge, the rate and breakdown of rates (ie, School tax, Hosp tax, etc) haven't really changed much in the past few years. Do you not have a realtor to help you with this? Did you look on hcad.org at the breakdowns of the total tax amount? You can always PM me the address and I can look at it for you. Btw, at hcad.org you can see if there's been a cap in the past 5 yrs, you can also check to see history of then the house had been sold.
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Old 07-11-2011, 08:17 AM
 
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Thanks for pointing me to the hcad website, houstonfan. That's a really useful link.

We don't have a realtor, as we're not sure if we're moving yet. Just doing some preliminary research at this point. If we accept the job offer, we're probably going to rent for a year to get a feel for the neighborhoods anyway. We're country folk, originally, so I'm a bit nervous about making sure we find a good part of town to live in. (Not to mention that the last time I lived in a city, as a child, we were robbed five times in two years. I do not want my children to go through the same experience).
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