County with the Lowest Real Estate Tax (Houston, Austin: sales, rentals)

[kddowning]

I have been scouring the forum trying to figure out how the counties stack up tax wise and my head is spinning. Can anyone give me the cliff notes version? We are moving from Northern Virginia to Austin soon and I am house hunting now. While taxes may not be a deal breaker, I want to know the big picture on taxes before buying a house.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by kddowning

I have been scouring the forum trying to figure out how the counties stack up tax wise and my head is spinning. Can anyone give me the cliff notes version? We are moving from Northern Virginia to Austin soon and I am house hunting now. While taxes may not be a deal breaker, I want to know the big picture on taxes before buying a house.

Out of the three main counties in the area, the rates are Travis at 0.4215%, Hays at 0.4181%, and Williamson at 0.4599%. The important thing for you to know is that the County is only a small part of what makes up your property tax, typically around 20% of the whole bill. The biggest chunk is the School District (ISD), which will usually make up 50% or more.

When looking around Austin and the surrounding areas, comprehensive tax information can be found at:

Travis Central Appraisal District
TaxNetUSA - TX : Hays : Search
Welcome to WCAD

Best way to see a breakdown of the property tax entities is to get a street address (or at least street name) of a potential property you are thinking of buying, then searching one of the sites above for that property. It should list the ISD, City tax rate, County tax rate, and any other entities that apply to that property. Combine those rates and you will get the total you'll have to pay yearly. It ranges from about 1.88% to about 2.7%.

[FalconheadWest]

Exactly what atxcio said. Tax rates aren't based on county alone. There are also many parts of the different counties that aren't within a "city limit" so that won't even be part of your calculation. However, you could have a water district tax, a MUD tax, etc...

Each neighborhood within each city will have a different tax rate, especially since many cities split school districts and that's where the highest chunk is from.

[G Grasshopper]

Here's a page that has some selected tax rates:

Property Tax | The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce :: Austin, Texas (http://www.austin-chamber.org/DoBusiness/TaxesAndIncentives/TxProperty.html - broken link)

[jobert]

Apologies for going off topic, but don't forget to factor in any possible HOA dues. They can range from a couple of hundred dollars/year to several thousand - which will obviously increase your total cost of ownership.

[verybadgnome]

Not a county, but a city here supposedly has no city property taxes (you still have ISD and other taxes). From Fox Austin on Sunset Valley:

"And it's that mix that defines Sunset Valley. The city, which is surrounded by Southwest Austin, has a population of a little more than 500 people. There are no city property taxes, so Sunset Valley relies heavily on sales tax revenue."

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by kddowning

I have been scouring the forum trying to figure out how the counties stack up tax wise and my head is spinning. Can anyone give me the cliff notes version? We are moving from Northern Virginia to Austin soon and I am house hunting now. While taxes may not be a deal breaker, I want to know the big picture on taxes before buying a house.

Focusing on the County won't help you. You need to be outside a municipality to get the lowest rates in the Austin area. Granada Oaks, where I just moved from, is outside city of Austin and has a total property tax rate of 1.88%. That's about the lowest you'll find anywhere I know of, other than Barton Creek West at 1.79%.

Compare that to Dripping Springs, Rim Rock for example, where you find 2.91%. The city of Austin areas are mostly about 2.2%.

But, as already was mentioned, there are other costs such as HOAs to consider. Property Taxes are but one component on your home's TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) so you also have to account in commuting costs, expected utilities, expected repairs, stress level for traffic (yes, give it a value), etc.

I just left my 1.88% tax rate behind in Granada Oaks and am now in Westlake in a much smaller home. We've been here a couple of weeks absolutely love the closer in location. Haven't been this close since 1996 in Travis Heights. Can walk to Trianon Coffee shop, Taco Bell, the post office, Chipolte, Starbucks, etc. Bus stop 5 minutes in case we want to hop on for Barton Springs or downtown. Mainly, the kids can walk to the high school, which is the main reason we moved in from Oak Hill. We place a high value being situated like this and are happy to pay high property taxes for it because we'll drive a lot less and not as far.

So, I'd focus less on property taxes as a money saver and more on calculating the "total living value" you seek in a home, including location and the value you place on that location and its amenities.

Steve

[TXFeller]

This was very good information, but in searching the old threads on City-Data, I still have a question about Austin area taxes. Maybe someone knows the answer?

I was born and raised in Houston. I spent most of my adult career in DFW. I have family and friends who live all over Texas. We talk about real estate matters from time-to-time. I'm no agent nor attorney, but I know the norms of real estate across Texas pretty well, at least from the homeowners' point of view.

All of the preceeding is to underscore my confusion when I ask the question, "Does Kyle, or any other suburb of Austin, have variable property tax rates?"

I've never heard of any county or city in Texas telling one property owner their tax rate is X%, and the next door neighbor is told their tax rate is Y%.

4 examples in my recent-but-brief searches for possible home rentals when I move to Austin:

2009 Tax Amount Paid / 2009 Appraised Value = Calculated Tax Rate:

2178 / 114K = 1.91%
2610 / 114K = 2.29%
2986 / 130K = 2.29%
3203 / 138K = 2.32%

The above are all taken from active, online real estate MLS listings on September 25, 2010. They are all homes in Kyle, TX. I had to determine the calculated rate (not difficult but the point is, the listings only showed the appraised value and the actual taxes paid).

Is this normal in the Austin area? I've never encountered it before. It seems illegal to me. How does one go about negatiating a lower tax rate? Does one have to have a brother-in-law on the city council? Make a donation to someone's election campaign? Can we get a rate of 0?

Richard

[jazznblues]

I would not trust MLS data on taxes.

Look it up for each property in question on the appraisal district website.

It is possible for two properties next to each other to have seemingly different tax rates. They won't really - but one property might be owned by someone over 65. They would probably take advantage of frozen rates on school taxes. If one of the homes is a 2nd home, it would not be eligible for the homestead exemption (exempts 20% of the appraised value). So the assessed values might be different.

[TXFeller]

Thanks, Jazz, but the adjusted/exempted amounts would change the appraised value and assessed taxes as shown on the MLS listing. The lowered appraised value multiplied by a constant rate would yield a lower tax amount assessed. I believe it would be unethical at best to quote a higher appraised value (no exemptions applied) and a lower assessed tax (based on applied exemptions).It is probably (I hope) due to erroneous MLS data. That's rather odd for it to be so far off, though. Maybe it's an Austin thing where "close enough" on a listing is acceptable. Not so in DFW, where you either quote the exact figures or quote nothing at all. No idea if that's law or just the expected custom, but it's probably why I stumbled when I noted the differences.I take it, then, the answer to my question is, "No, tax rates don't vary within a municipality."Richard