Texans...anyone else seeing a large property tax increase?

[Capt W]

Educating a town means you wind up with a smarter town which improves quality of life.

In theory I agree with you 100%. The problem here is that in actual practice public education has been trending downward for what seems like a long time (I graduated from a public HS in 1986). Some locales might be OK, but on average American students (products of the process) are getting much, much worse insofar as getting "smarter." People can cast blame in a lot of different directions, but that's not the point. The point is continually throwing wads of money at education has not made anyone smarter or improved the overall viability of graduates.

 

[Capt W]

Let me be more transparent with my query. I have both homestead and disabled vet exemptions for my property tax, which are both generous. There's no question most of my neighbors would love to pay what I pay every year. In fact, I was just discussing this with one of them yesterday and his eyes almost popped out of his head when he found out I pay half of what he pays. He suggested I don't rock the boat.

That's not the point, though. I'm just very curious why, after three years of a relatively steady state, my tax bill jumped over 17%. While I'm refurbing the house, most of the work is inside and I've made no major exterior improvements. It's just a curiosity.

 

[rstsco]

That's not the point, though. I'm just very curious why, after three years of a relatively steady state, my tax bill jumped over 17%. While I'm refurbing the house, most of the work is inside and I've made no major exterior improvements. It's just a curiosity.

Did you pull permits for any of this work? Each time we do improvements requiring permits, our taxes always go up because of them.

This is why so many people do not pull permits, but it can/will catch up to you if they spot it from the air, your neighbor rats you out, or the house is put up for sale.

 

[Capt W]

Nothing I've done...most of it inside...required a permit. Even the new fence I'm about to build - at 6 feet tall - doesn't require a permit.

 

[Vil_Riker]

We bought our house in Corpus Christi in March 2023. The assessments and taxes were actually quite stable for tax years 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Just got my 2026 Notice of Appraised Value. Here are my 2026 vs. 2025 deltas:

Market value: -1.88%
Appraised value +9.1%
Estimated 2026 tax: +17.45%

I thought the 17 amendments the voters approved in November 2025 were supposed to "significantly expand property tax relief for homeowners..."

Yeah, right. I am going to file a protest for sure. Pure BS.

You will paint a bullseye on your back.

 

[Capt W]

You will paint a bullseye on your back.

That's what I'm getting. I really hate to suck it up without at least an explanation for the rather sudden jump.

 

[Vil_Riker]

Let me be more transparent with my query. I have both homestead and disabled vet exemptions for my property tax, which are both generous. There's no question most of my neighbors would love to pay what I pay every year. In fact, I was just discussing this with one of them yesterday and his eyes almost popped out of his head when he found out I pay half of what he pays. He suggested I don't rock the boat.

That's not the point, though. I'm just very curious why, after three years of a relatively steady state, my tax bill jumped over 17%. While I'm refurbing the house, most of the work is inside and I've made no major exterior improvements. It's just a curiosity.

The assessor got to your property - that's why your taxes were flat then and you have a big jump.

 

[Capt W]

Makes sense. I thought most of them just did drive-by assessments with some help from Google Earth. Maybe that nice paint job I did last year gave me away!

 

[slo town]

Ya but is has severely distorted the residential market because there is a huge adjustment for buyers of the real estate and unless you're relocating out of state there's also a disincentive to sell.

California property tax law allows a person to sell their existing home and move into a less expensive home while preserving their old property tax base. You have one year to buy a replacement home. This is effective when a person has been a long time owner of their first home, a home that has enjoyed Prop 13 tax protection.

Scott

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

California property tax law allows a person to sell their existing home and move into a less expensive home while preserving their old property tax base. You have one year to buy a replacement home. This is effective when a person has been a long time owner of their first home, a home that has enjoyed Prop 13 tax protection.

Scott

Yes but not the same or higher value which is what typically happens with young families. Of course there's more to it like capital gains tax and other assessments which get around prop 13.

 

[Vil_Riker]

The place I live in the homes look like and the driveways are unpaved gravel. Those who make their homes look good get slapped with higher property taxes.

Talk about perverse incentives.

 

[slo town]

Yes but not the same or higher value which is what typically happens with young families. Of course there's more to it like capital gains tax and other assessments which get around prop 13.

You are correct about young families moving into a more expensive home. Where it works is when they move to a less expensive area for that larger home.

And like you say, there are the capital gains taxes to worry about. As most of you know that's $250K per person or $500K per married couple. However, there is a benefit that most people don't know about. Should your spouse die, your assessed value is adjusted to the current market value with respect to capital gains (but you're still protected by Prop 13). What this does is give the surviving spouse an opportunity to sell and avoid capital gains. The only thing that needs to happen is your spouse must die first before you sell.

Scott

 

[JeffKeryk]

In theory I agree with you 100%. The problem here is that in actual practice public education has been trending downward for what seems like a long time (I graduated from a public HS in 1986). Some locales might be OK, but on average American students (products of the process) are getting much, much worse insofar as getting "smarter." People can cast blame in a lot of different directions, but that's not the point. The point is continually throwing wads of money at education has not made anyone smarter or improved the overall viability of graduates.

Curious... What's your solution?
Full disclosure, education is critically important to me. I graduated HS in '71 and got my college degree at the age of 40 fron San Jose State U. It changed my life. My college was paid for Silicon Valley High Tech and the promise of low cost, high value CA Public University System. And even me.

 

[slo town]

Curious... What's your solution?
Full disclosure, education is critically important to me. I graduated HS in '71 and got my college degree at the age of 40 fron San Jose State U. It changed my life. My college was paid for Silicon Valley High Tech and the promise of low cost, high value CA Public University System. And even me.

You were asking @Capt W, but let me chime in.

IMO the problems with our school system are the result of parents wanting the school system to raise their children. The root cause of this is the dual income family. By no means am I suggesting that woman should be excluded from the workplace. Far from it. What I'm saying is that one parent should be the bread winner and the other parent home to raise the kids. It doesn't matter which gender does what. Whatever best suits the family's needs.

People always complain about affordability and such. There are many reasons for this, but IMO one of the primary reasons, if not the root cause, was the creation of the dual income family. I'm a capitalist, but dual incomes are capitalism's wet dream because it's doubled the number of consumers which doubled their spending power. A larger consumer base, all at the expense of the family unit.

Our schools need improvement, but schools aren't the primary problem. Rather, it's the shirking of parental responsibility to the school system.

Scott

 

[JeffKeryk]

You were asking @Capt W, but let me chime in.

IMO the problems with our school system are the result of parents wanting the school system to raise their children. The root cause of this is the dual income family. By no means am I suggesting that woman should be excluded from the workplace. Far from it. What I'm saying is that one parent should be the bread winner and the other parent home to raise the kids. It doesn't matter which gender does what. Whatever best suits the families needs.orse left the

People always complain about affordability and such. There are many reasons for this, but IMO one of the primary reasons, if not the root cause, was the creation of the dual income family. I'm a capitalist, but dual incomes are capitalism's wet dream because it's doubled a families spending power - all at the expense of the family unit.

Our schools need improvement, but schools aren't the primary problem. Rather, it's the shirking of parental responsibility to the school system.

Scott

Scott, that horse left the barn a long time ago and ain't coming back. Effective solutions need to be based on real conditions.
The cost of living, inflation, etc continues to rise.

IMO, the answer is to value teachers. We don't. I bet there was a teacher or 2 who greatly affected your life...
It is a tough situation and will not improve overnight.

 

[K-Man]

Rates and assessments are two different things. That explains the apparent California discrepancy in the map posted earlier. Rates can stay "low" if assessments arbitrarily jump instead. There's the $2 million shanty. Note that the map similarly shows Hawaii as a low-rate state.

By the way, don't do as the residents of Virginia Beach did back in the 1980s and 1990s. They fought to keep certain things from happening because "it would affect their property values", to the point of keeping out a Ronald McDonald house for families with a child undergoing cancer treatment. (It's just a regular house with a discreet sign in the yard, is my understanding.) Then, by the mid–1990s, when their precious property values shot up, they complained and complained about the much higher taxes.

In neighboring Norfolk, in response to higher house taxes there, a vice-mayor once helpfully responded that perhaps residents could get a second job to pay those taxes. So pay attention to what the local policy makers are saying too.

 

[alarmguy]

Thank you for the chart.

I wonder what "rates" really mean. California is "only" 0.74% but a shack in a bad neighborhood is $2M?

Texas doesn't surprise me - no income tax, reasonable sale tax, no property tax on vehicles, etc. But what is up with places like Nebraska and Michigan?

Keep in mind that is median for the state.
So half the state has higher property taxes, and half the state lower

 

[alarmguy]

Do you have a bot or script that will scrape for comps? Otherwise, not practical nor an accurate source of truth.

Huh?
You need nothing special to search for Home sale prices, no bots no scripts. Simple stuff.

You could go street by street in Zillow and pull up all the comps within a mile from the house that sells. It’s really simple Zillow lists every single sale price for every single house on every single block in almost the entire country.

Not only that, but you can also go to the tax assessor’s office of almost any modern county in the United States online and look up the sale prices of houses that way as well.

Easy stuff once you learn the systems available right from your computer and it is not realtor.com

 

[slo town]

Scott, that horse left the barn a long time ago and ain't coming back. Effective solutions need to be based on real conditions.
The cost of living, inflation, etc continues to rise.

IMO, the answer is to value teachers. We don't. I bet there was a teacher or 2 who greatly affected your life...
It is a tough situation and will not improve overnight.

You always say how one of the core principles of capitalism is to maximize profits. We're now seeing massive layoffs in the tech sector - while at the same time these companies are enjoying record profits. Oracle is a good example.

I read the Silicon Valley news and all the "woe is me" from those who have been laid off. Give me a break. The people who now complain are the very types who thought laid off autoworkers in Detroit should learn how to write code. I have ZERO sympathy for the job losses I see going on in high tech. In fact, I think it's fair comeuppance.

As I said, I'm a capitalist, but I think capitalism needs guardrails. Offshoring our factory jobs was a betrayal to our society. So is the H1B program.

Let me add, both Sue and I are well educated and enjoyed lucrative careers. That said, Sue retired from nursing when our first child was born and remained retired until both our children were out on their own. Both our sons are successful and I don't attribute that to our DNA or school system. Instead I attribute that to Sue being an at home mother.

We paid a significant price for our 25 year long single income family choice. We may have lived in Los Gatos but there were times we lived on rice and beans and were literally out of money for a day or two before I got paid.

As far as your comment about the "horse leaving the barn a longtime ago". That is true, but I also believe this country is on the wrong track and dual incomes, our school system, the internet, our disappearing middle class, our radicalized two party political system, Wall Street greed, chronic budget deficits with no accountability, money printing, etc., are all part of it. Something needs to be done about it. IMO, if changes don't happen - and soon - you and I are going to witness the failure of this nation.

What makes you think the money you have stashed away in your Schwab or Fidelity accounts will even be there when you need it?

Scott

 

[4strokes]

And how about not taking money from childless couples to pay for schools and other child related needs. I've noticed all the people angry about high taxes never seem to mention that side of things, since of course they all have kids and are just fine making childless couples subsidize them.

But we need those kids to grow up, work, and pay our Social Security