Property Tax Question (San Antonio, New Braunfels, Seguin: how much, houses, neighborhoods)

[jjuranko]

Going to visit New Braunfels next week for a possible move. I have looked for homes online in the price range we would like to pay. Need to know...what should I figure for property tax? Is it 2, 2.5, 3% per thousand dollars? I presently live in the greater Los Angeles area and understand property tax is higher than CA. I would like to figure out how much higher. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[ged_782]

If you know the address of the property you are interesed in, go to www.comalad.org (Comal County Appraisal District) and do a "Property Search" for that address. It should give you the appraised value of the property, and the tax with and without the current owner's exemptions. Unfortunately, the search feature was down a few minutes ago when I checked, so I can't verify it will give you all the information you are seeking about the tax, but most appraisal districts in Texas do have this information available on their web sites.

You are correct that the tax rate in this area is relatively high, but I would expect appraisals are much lower here than they are in L.A., so you may be paying less tax here than you would in California on a similar size home with comparable amenities.

[sinsativ]

It all depends on where you choose to live. New Braunfels, or Comal County, is different than San Antonio, Bexar County, but the ranges can be anywhere from about 2.5% to 3.5% per thousand dollars. I'm currently paying $2,400 per year for my house in San Antonio and it's valued at $112,500, with homestead exemption. You can look on the websites and see what people pay.
Bexar County: For San Antonio = Bexar Appraisal District and
Comal County for New Braunfels and surrounding = Tax Office-Online Payments-Comal County, Texas (http://www.co.comal.tx.us/Tax_Office/Property_Tax/Online_Payments.htm - broken link)
Just follow the link and put in an address, you'll see what the taxes are like on houses and property for the neighborhoods you are looking at.

[ged_782]

One of the reasons property tax rates are higher in Texas is because there is no state income tax.

The annual tax on my home in San Antonio with the Homestead Exemption is about 2.5% of appraised value.

[jjuranko]

Thanks everyone! Great answers. All of your answers helped. Look foward to seeing New Braunfels first hand. Again thanks for the info.

[hound 109]

One other item of note.

Areas of NB located EAST of I 35 could be in Guadalupe Co. (County seat in Seguin)

If you determine the tax rate for a home that you are looking at, please post back....I'd be curious to know the per thousand rate (& which school district....since there are two of them).

Thanks.

[jjuranko]

No problem! I'll keep you posted. Meeting with RE agent on Tuesday. Will post after I return from our trip.

[Dwayne Meyers]

How can I find the millage rate numbers and how are they calculated?

[djw]

It just came to my attention that I've paid taxes on more square footage than I thought I lived in.
The builder advertises my floorplan as X sq ft but my tax value shows total living area as X+159sq ft. Maybe not a big deal...but now that I'm trying to sell the house I wonder how much that will matter. Comps show my house at apx $77/sq ft in this area. That's a $12k difference!

It's a buyer's market and I'm competing with said builder, so I don't want it to look like anything shady is going on when I price the house...but I don't want to leave any room for questions either. WWYD?

I pulled my address and another that is my floor plan and it is so out of whack with that tax record I can't even figure out what they computed differently - all the values are different and it is the EXACT floor plan (same options re bed/bath/garage, etc).

I'm so confused

[midnight blue]

I heard that if you are a senior over 65 you get a tax break is this true.