Help Calculating Property Taxes (houses, neighborhood, buying)

[boricuapower927]

Can someone provide some insight on how to calculate the property taxes on a home that is appraised at $141,000 and is located in the East Central ISD?

I looked at this site http://www.bcad.org/tax_rates.htm but am very new to all of this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jjuranko]

I don't know how accurate this is, but someone told me you can figure 3% of the total price for inside SA and 2.48% on the outskirts. On $141,000.00 3% would be approx. $4,230.00 a year. Hope this helps.

[Steel Man]

Looking at BCAD.org, it looks like the overall tax rate is 2.8%, so a home valued at $141,000 would have a property tax of $3,948 dollars. This is without any exemptions.

You can use the property search and look up by owner's name or by address. Note, just typing in a city street doesn't always give results.

[jjuranko]

Steelman, are there exemptions you can take to reduce your taxes?

[Trainwreck20]

Homestead exemption is the most common. Not sure what it is in SA, but it is usually 20%, I think? Or $20,000? Gah, can't remember. Anyway, 3% is a good estimate..think of the exemptions as cash back .

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by jjuranko

Steelman, are there exemptions you can take to reduce your taxes?

It doesn't reduce your property taxes directly. Rather it reduces your property value by $15,000 for the school district. This will in-turn reduce your overall property tax. I save about $200 a year. Everyone can claim the homestead exemption, but you must be living in your house on January 1st of the first year you sign up. For example, say you move into your house on July, you can not file for the exemption until the following January. New appraisals come out in April each year and should show the exemption. Of course there are some other exemptions, like over 65 and disability types (check BCAD for more details).

[boricuapower927]

Thank you for your insightful replies, this has been very helpful.

[sapphire]

On bcad.org did you type in the actual address of the house and see what the current taxes are? (there is a property search function) Actually, they just flipped over to zero at the start of the new year, but in a month or two, the actual values will be posted and you can see the taxes on any property in Bexar county. When we were in the buying process last year, I would just type in the name of the street we were looking at, and all the homes and values would come up. It's great information, and it's all public--wasn't like I was spying on anyone!

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by sapphire

On bcad.org did you type in the actual address of the house and see what the current taxes are? (there is a property search function) Actually, they just flipped over to zero at the start of the new year, but in a month or two, the actual values will be posted and you can see the taxes on any property in Bexar county. When we were in the buying process last year, I would just type in the name of the street we were looking at, and all the homes and values would come up. It's great information, and it's all public--wasn't like I was spying on anyone!

Actually, previous years are in the little pull down menu. The default year is 2007, but 2006 and before are there. Select the year first before entering the address. It is good information to see if similar houses in your neighborhood are being assessed at the same value in case you want to protest your assessment.

[meekins357]

moving from ca to sa, looking for nice 5 bedroom home for family was hearing about property taxes, is this a concern?