Property Taxes (Austin, Howe: sales, new house, neighborhood)

[rnqueen]

From what I've read, property taxes can go up 10% per year, minus homesteading. But how often do property taxes actually go up? Do they increase every year? Is property actually re-assessed, or does the tax office just look at market comps and arbitrarily raise taxes? We have our hearts set on building a 2000 sq ft home in Riverchase but don't want to be taxed out of our home when we retire. Thank you for you help. You're all so terrific!

[sapphire]

Your assessment is limited to a 10% increase per year, as long as you have the homestead exemption. Then when you are over 65 there is a max on the tax rates, I believe. Go check out bcad.org. They have an FAQ section on there that may help you.

[Steel Man]

Be careful about first year assessments on new homes. A co-worker's new house was appraised $40,000 more than they paid for it 3 months earlier. And they didn't live in the house on January 1st this year, so the 10% limit rule did not apply. HOWEVER, I helped them with info on how to protest and they won (the additional $40,000 was removed). Several houses on their street had the same problem.

Bottom Line: Pay your taxes, yes...pay more than you should, no.

[Trainwreck20]

Tax rates themselves tend not to change much year to year. The appraisals tend to change every year, either up or down, and sometimes the changes can be dramatic. This results in you paying more taxes even though the tax rate has not changed.

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Tax rates themselves tend not to change much year to year. The appraisals tend to change every year, either up or down, and sometimes the changes can be dramatic. This results in you paying more taxes even though the tax rate has not changed.

You can bet that the dramatic changes will NEVER be down!

[Trainwreck20]

Yeah, the biggest drop I have every seen was ~10%, and I think that was because the buyer had overpaid and the appraisal had been based on the sales price. The value dropped back toward the neighborhood norm the next year.

We saw a 34% increase on our house in one year (the 'infamous' appraisal year in Austin), and it dropped about 5% a year for the next three years before starting an upward trend again. I suspect it probably should have dropped back faster, but there is that 'resistance' to lowering appraisals.