2022 Property Tax Values are out

[BillyGoatHill 4312]

8 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

I am sitting here waiting on some PIN number apparently on the piece of paper they mail me. Because this is like 2005. 

Nothing better than dealing with bureaucratic idiots with the gubment....

After my dad's passing in December, just now getting his benefits for my mom. 5 months later. Luckily they had saved and put money aside for her or she wouldn't have been able to pay bills or something like property taxes. 

[Biff Tannen 45692]

So should we be voting for or against the Prop in the upcoming local election?  Predictably, the language is less than clear.

 

State of Texas Proposition 2

The constitutional amendment increasing the amount of the residence homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation for public school purposes from $25,000 to $40,000.

[TKthunder2 4992]

3 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

So should we be voting for or against the Prop in the upcoming local election?  Predictably, the language is less than clear.

 

State of Texas Proposition 2

The constitutional amendment increasing the amount of the residence homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation for public school purposes from $25,000 to $40,000.

So the entire state lowers is burden by $15000 which is a lot for most of Texas, meaning that more rural markets will start dipping into the Robinhood fund that the Austin market pays into where as a 15000 decrease in Austin values is very little when the median house price is now over half a million.

Or am I thinking about that backwards somehow.

[Hefeweizen 5328]

On 4/18/2022 at 12:50 PM, sidis said:

Well, feeling a bit better about mine after seeing this one from a friend in my neighborhood. 

This is how you humblebrag.

[CleverNickname 1320]

7 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

So the entire state lowers is burden by $15000 which is a lot for most of Texas, meaning that more rural markets will start dipping into the Robinhood fund that the Austin market pays into where as a 15000 decrease in Austin values is very little when the median house price is now over half a million.

Or am I thinking about that backwards somehow.

I could see how it might hurt property rich school districts. But really, the fix is the Leg to account for having to pay teachers more in higher COL areas when it does its Robinhood calculations. I sort of this of the increased homesteaf exemption as as close as a progressive tax adjustment ad we will get from this states GOP.

[Quagmire 2147]

Let all just stop paying our property tax , they can’t arrest us all!

[WBT 20624]

8 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

So the entire state lowers is burden by $15000 which is a lot for most of Texas, meaning that more rural markets will start dipping into the Robinhood fund that the Austin market pays into where as a 15000 decrease in Austin values is very little when the median house price is now over half a million.

Or am I thinking about that backwards somehow.

I think that's the intent.  It's meant to be a progressive adjustment.

[CooterBrown 18015]

25 minutes ago, WBT said:

I think that's the intent.  It's meant to be a progressive adjustment.

It's meant to be a "fuck you" to urban districts.

[PantsTent 2002]

1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

It's meant to be a "fuck you" to urban districts.

The exemption comes after the "net appraisal" to give the "taxable value", so we'll still save a bit on taxes, no?

 

[Pato del Muerto 52529]

2 minutes ago, PantsTent said:

The exemption comes after the "net appraisal" to give the "taxable value", so we'll still save a bit on taxes, no?

 

We save $40k of value off a 500k value.  Our taxes reduce by 8%. 
 

the guy in bfe saves 40k of value off of 150k value. His taxes reduce by over 25%. 
 

why shouldn’t homestead exemption be a %?  
 

 

[gmr548 16580]

3 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

We save $40k of value off a 500k value.  Our taxes reduce by 8%. 
 

the guy in bfe saves 40k of value off of 150k value. His taxes reduce by over 25%. 
 

why shouldn’t homestead exemption be a %?  
 

 

Because:

4 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

It's meant to be a "fuck you" to urban districts.

 

[WBT 20624]

3 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

We save $40k of value off a 500k value.  Our taxes reduce by 8%. 
 

the guy in bfe saves 40k of value off of 150k value. His taxes reduce by over 25%. 
 

why shouldn’t homestead exemption be a %?  
 

 

[Biff Tannen 45692]

So are we voting for it?  Yes or no?

[Pato del Muerto 52529]

Property Owner,

 

Thank you for your interest in our Express Inquiry program.  The information you submitted has been reviewed and a meeting with an appraiser is required to find out additional information to determine if a change in value can be made.

 

 

 

If you would like to discuss the noticed value with a district appraiser, you must file a protest by the date indicated on the notice of appraised value you received in the mail.  You can file your protest online at http://www.wcad.org/online-protest-filing/
 

so…they’re going to make me show up if I want the sales price to be the valuation?

[BillyGoatHill 4312]

4 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Property Owner,

 

Thank you for your interest in our Express Inquiry program.  The information you submitted has been reviewed and a meeting with an appraiser is required to find out additional information to determine if a change in value can be made.

 

 

 

If you would like to discuss the noticed value with a district appraiser, you must file a protest by the date indicated on the notice of appraised value you received in the mail.  You can file your protest online at http://www.wcad.org/online-protest-filing/
 

so…they’re going to make me show up if I want the sales price to be the valuation?

A few years ago when I protested, I received a phone call prior to being assigned a date to show up. It was settled over the phone, them getting a higher eval, but also myself by getting lower than what was on the notice.

[Dnaguy 12002]

19 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

We save $40k of value off a 500k value.  Our taxes reduce by 8%. 
 

the guy in bfe saves 40k of value off of 150k value. His taxes reduce by over 25%. 
 

why shouldn’t homestead exemption be a %?  
 

 

B/c you touch yourself at night.

But in seriousness, it probably should. Like others said, by having a set $ amount exemption it makes this a quasi progressive tax as the benefit is more skewed to help those with lower property values?

 

One thing that I’ve been kicking around in my head however, AND not to get to CR, but how in the fuck did boomers strike the generational lottery AGAIN?

When I complained about appraisals to my in-laws and parents, I got a total shrug emoji reaction.

My FIL said, we’ve got our school district portion of our property frozen b/c we’re over 65. I don’t really pay attention to it anymore.

RAGE!

[Quagmire 2147]

Question about those taxprotest companies that charge 40% of the savings .

I’m wondering if they protest for me and dip my value but I’m still paying same tax amount due to the 10% cap on homestead , are these companies still going to charge me for the service ?

I figured it was actual tax savings but not sure .

[ChickenSandwich 9843]

yes

 

[Quagmire 2147]

That’s dumb to pay for not actual savings - although I know it may save me next year. May be better to go with a flat rate company this time . Can’t imagine anyone is getting it lowered below the 10 percent cap this year

[hornbri 1400]

They only charge the % on the money saved, however they also charge you a baseline number (100-150) that everyone gets charged if they save you money or not. 

[TexEx15 17545]

Filed my protest and was surprised to see a hearing scheduled when they had not reached out informally yet. Sent an email to see if I would still have a chance to resolve informally (bought the home new in 2021 so arguing it should be sales price) and got the following response. Sounds like they are slammed, unsurprisingly. This is the first time for me so not sure if it always works this way though.

“Thank you for your email/phone call.   All appraisers are currently working on informal reviews for hearings that are scheduled prior to your hearing date. If time allows for an informal review of your appeal, prior to your hearing day, an appraiser will reach out to you.  However, if you do not hear back from an appraiser before your scheduled hearing, please plan to attend and we will informally review your protest prior to your scheduled time.  If you are unable to attend your hearing, you may appear by notarized affidavit.”
 

[texasdago 7575]

House in our hood just went up for sale... not sure how many offers it got in the first 3 days but it is already under contract.  It listed at give/take our new valuation and I know for a fact that a $150K OVER offer was turned down.  So, yeah, about protesting...

[Pato del Muerto 52529]

I feel like Wilco is making the process as difficult as possible, on purpose.  
 

1) utilized their expedited review for HUD-1s that I thought was an ironclad number. Got an email saying not accepted and additional review by an appraiser was needed. 
 

2) filed formal protest. Initial appraiser review came back as “correctly valuated” so I declined that and opted for a hearing. 
3) they say the scheduling tool is available  my use for a short amount of time before one is scheduled for me. I attempt to use it, one time slot available and it’s the next morning. 
4) shortly after, they schedule my hearing at a time that was not listed as available when I tried to schedule (not that I would have selected it, but they obviously play with available times)

5) called in and waited on hold last week to ask why the settlement statement was t accepted.  Was told first that it’s not a guarantee (I thought it was law) and second that I had to ask the appraiser at my hearing. I asked for clarification of when the settlement statement would not be accepted, she had no answer other than you have to ask the appraiser. 
 

whole deal feels fishy. 

[Quagmire 2147]

Yeah I had no problem last year with my hud statement, they actually went 3 k below what I paid

[Pato del Muerto 52529]

13 minutes ago, Quagmire said:

Yeah I had no problem last year with my hud statement, they actually went 3 k below what I paid

My only guess is that the property wasn’t listed for sale, so they may argue that it wasn’t sold for market price. Even though it was arms length and I asked how much he wanted for it and he gave me the number. 

[immamac 42869]

I don't understand what they are doing with all this extra money they are collecting. It seems like Austin should have insane public services compared to other cities with the budget they get from our tax payments.

I understand the school recapture thing and that being a large component of the tax bill, but the other part of the Tax bill is still a thing and I don't think Austin is getting better (I think it's getting worse). 

[TexEx15 17545]

51 minutes ago, immamac said:

I don't understand what they are doing with all this extra money they are collecting. It seems like Austin should have insane public services compared to other cities with the budget they get from our tax payments.

I understand the school recapture thing and that being a large component of the tax bill, but the other part of the Tax bill is still a thing and I don't think Austin is getting better (I think it's getting worse). 

Hopefully the 3.5% revenue cap limits some of the impact of the outrageous new appraisals.

[Fico 1789]

Purchased my house at the end of May 2021. The 2022 appraised value was 22% over my purchase price and 30% over the 2021 appraised value. I filed my protest directly with TCAD. As someone else mentioned above, they also rejected my closing statement, stating it was an invalid sale for the appraisal purposes.  They reduced the appraised value by 1.25% in their recommended value amount, using some type of appreciation formula applied to my end of May 2021 purchase price.  It sucks, but even so it is still probably undervalued.  Not really sure how successful I would be fighting it further.

 

 

[Dbeasy 15072]

Given the 40-70% increases in and around Austin, and the fact that a major chunk of that real estate is not subject to the 10% increase cap, property tax rates SHOULD drop dramatically. They won’t, and there will be a massive revolt. 

[MrBig 5421]

1 hour ago, immamac said:

I don't understand what they are doing with all this extra money they are collecting. It seems like Austin should have insane public services compared to other cities with the budget they get from our tax payments.

I understand the school recapture thing and that being a large component of the tax bill, but the other part of the Tax bill is still a thing and I don't think Austin is getting better (I think it's getting worse). 

The recapture thing is huge. AISD paid the most in the state, $710M in recapture. Houston ISD was #2 at $197M (largest district in the state). So AISD paid $512M MORE than any other district in Texas. Next year AISD has to pay $761M. This is where all the money is going.

https://www.kvue.com/amp/article/news/education/schools/austin-isd-tea-recapture-710-million/269-2f5ea2dd-8e32-4f62-ae0f-2ab08ed2ee27

[immamac 42869]

5 minutes ago, MrBig said:

The recapture thing is huge. AISD paid the most in the state, $710M in recapture. Houston ISD was #2 at $197M (largest district in the state). So AISD paid $512M MORE than any other district in Texas. Next year AISD has to pay $761M. This is where all the money is going.

https://www.kvue.com/amp/article/news/education/schools/austin-isd-tea-recapture-710-million/269-2f5ea2dd-8e32-4f62-ae0f-2ab08ed2ee27

It's not as big a deal as people make it. AISD just keeps less money and the schools aren't as badass because of it. Without recapture they wouldn't lower the tax rate for AISD they would just have bigger budgets. 

[ZB'Tejas 593]

10 minutes ago, immamac said:

It's not as big a deal as people make it. AISD just keeps less money and the schools aren't as badass because of it. Without recapture they wouldn't lower the tax rate for AISD they would just have bigger budgets. 

I would rather all my AISD dollars go to Austin schools versus the State General fund. Why shouldn't AISD be badass? I think it is a big deal that we have to deal with that.

[AUS-97HORN 11809]

13 minutes ago, immamac said:

It's not as big a deal as people make it. AISD just keeps less money and the schools aren't as badass because of it. Without recapture they wouldn't lower the tax rate for AISD they would just have bigger budgets. 

dude, they would have bigger budgets to be able to A) pay teachers more than bare fucking minimum, B) repair or renovate some of the schools that are 50+ years old, C) RETURN the funds back to the tax payers by not requiring us to pay 2.3%.  

Even if that tax rate dropped by .1% that would still represent a $624 tax break to the average Austin homeowner

[immamac 42869]

12 minutes ago, AUS-97HORN said:

dude, they would have bigger budgets to be able to A) pay teachers more than bare fucking minimum, B) repair or renovate some of the schools that are 50+ years old, C) RETURN the funds back to the tax payers by not requiring us to pay 2.3%.  

Even if that tax rate dropped by .1% that would still represent a $624 tax break to the average Austin homeowner

But they wouldn't do any of those things, much less (C) 

My point is ON TOP OF the ISD taxes everything has doubled for quite a few people in the past 5-7 years, yet Austin is still not deploying better budget plans or improving in general. 

They can effectively run at the same tax base (and showed that 2 years ago when they got busted on MLS) with no need to charge it's residents more. Yet every year we pay more and nothing good comes of it. Property tax is now broken and for a nice house that was affordable, it has now become unaffordable even for those with high incomes, but not because they have to spend less on anything (including transportation). As an income tax %age if you bought a 400k house 12 years ago (doing well 6 figure income and whatnot) and now that house is assessed at 1M and your tax burden is ~25k and you got decent raises over the same period of time. You now have a disproportionate amount of "state income tax" because of something that is necessary (a house) and doesn't benefit you more than it did (same or worse public infra/transportation/programs) 

If you use round numbers. 150k salary starting @10.5k in taxes when you bought and now make 190k @ 25k in taxes how does that start to look? That means all your raises and then some need to go into paying your property tax burden and that's just fucking bullshit. 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

Welcome to low tax Texas

[burntorangebongos 10747]

Austin closed some schools and reduced staff in some schools to try to keep their budget from increasing. The State is fucking Austin hard. It is bullshit and it can't sustain. I don't know why you are more mad at AISD when this redistribution shit is fucked and unfair as fuck.

[jimmyjazz 45985]

I have yet to see a concise explanation as to why AISD pays 3.6X as much into recapture as Houston ISD, which serves 2.5X the number of students.  That skew is massive.  Redfin claims the median sale price in Houston is $315K, whereas it's $645K in Austin, or 2.05X higher.  HISD must pull from a LOT fewer houses to explain that difference.  It would seem to be in the neighborhood of 60% the properties and yet still 2.5X the attendance.

[Anastasis 23478]

Been on two calls with TCAD folks since last week and I am becoming convinced that they are among the least helpful people on the planet stuck in an insane  bureaucracy. 

Edited May 9, 2022 by Anastasis

[blacklab 11941]

1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

I have yet to see a concise explanation as to why AISD pays 3.6X as much into recapture as Houston ISD, which serves 2.5X the number of students.  That skew is massive.  Redfin claims the median sale price in Houston is $315K, whereas it's $645K in Austin, or 2.05X higher.  HISD must pull from a LOT fewer houses to explain that difference.  It would seem to be in the neighborhood of 60% the properties and yet still 2.5X the attendance.

I've tried to find the formula but all I can find are some vauge descriptions of it but I think it's like this, if anyone knows better please correct me.

The state sets a value per student and then the school district has to send anything above that to the state. Found this graph when trying to figure it out.

 

Houston has only 1.34 times the tax base, but 2.8 times the number of students. So they get to keep more of the money they collect as it's based on the number of students you have. 

[CooterBrown 18015]

It's not as big a deal as people make it. AISD just keeps less money and the schools aren't as badass because of it. Without recapture they wouldn't lower the tax rate for AISD they would just have bigger budgets. 

Multiple schools don’t have working air conditioning due to budget shortfalls. They could use more money. Don’t confuse the nice new schools around southwest austin as being representative of the average condition of an AISD school.

[immamac 42869]

5 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

Multiple schools don’t have working air conditioning due to budget shortfalls. They could use more money. Don’t confuse the nice new schools around southwest austin as being representative of the average condition of an AISD school.

What about my statements which exclude the ISD portion are you guys missing? 

The problem isn't the fucking ISD portion and recapture. The problem is the overall income generated from property tax vs benefits received. Then further to that it's also as a percentage of a normal person's income these valuations make absolutely no fucking sense because less than 25% of the market had turned over and driven the prices of homes that have been lived in for over a decade are now fucking insane as a percentage of income for the occupant. 

[burntorangebongos 10747]

Oh, so you are talking about the percentage of income for people in Austin that are housing costs are fucking insane? I completely agree with that.

Before I paid off my house, I checked my net income budget and my housing costs were 47% or so of it (that included insurance and taxes and the mortgage but not maintenance) and that was rising because I lost the over 65 freeze since my husband died. So I paid off my mortgage to reduce that expense to closer to 25% which is what financial advisors say should be the percentage of housing expenses in your budget. I suspect that very few people that own homes in Austin have that as the percentage of housing expense right now, no matter their income bracket. 

[MrBig 5421]

Did the Lake Austin people start paying property taxes? I know they had it good for 20 years before anyone noticed they weren’t paying like everyone else.

[immamac 42869]

1 minute ago, MrBig said:

Did the Lake Austin people start paying property taxes? I know they had it good for 20 years before anyone noticed they weren’t paying like everyone else.

Not only yes, but the tax bill is so high even rich people can't afford it. 

I used to ask "who can afford these 2.5-3M houses" and it was people who did well on an IPO and had 300-400k in HH income. Cool cool, those houses that less than 10 years ago cost that are now 8-10M and the taxes are aggressively catching up in value. Even an executive making 400k cash comp and another 300k in equity compensation a year is going to have a hard time with a fully paid off lake Austin property. Imagine having a 200k+ property tax bill and only making 700k and having a 35% tax bracket and a 28% effective state income tax. Why the fuck would you live here? That's unreasonably high and you have no recourse at all from a write-offs perspective.

It makes absolutely no sense for anyone all the way through income levels. 

How the fuck is someone who makes 75k a year or has a HH income of 130-150k supposed to live in their house they bought 5 years ago in Kyle or Buda or Leander or South Austin for 225-350k going to afford the taxes by themselves on their house that is going to get assessed at 650-800k? Spoiler alert: they aren't. 

How the fuck is someone who makes a HH income of 80k or less supposed to afford anything at all here on taxes alone, not even taking into account a mortgage? Spoiler alert: they aren't 

What is going to happen? We are going to have astronomically high density high rent situations or a complete breakdown of the "single family" home and a transition to 2-3 individuals living in a house everyone effectively renting or buying a bedroom. It's what happened in SF, the difference there is the property tax is only assessed on the PURCHASE PRICE, and adjusted very slowly over time paired with a state income tax, but in exchange they have the best public school system in the country (all the way through university) and incredible public transportation pretty much everywhere. Is it still hard to live there? Sure, but the quality of life is far higher than shit hole Texas where it's 100 and school air conditioners don't work and we can't teach kids that people used to be racist and no one has access to any public services. 

[immamac 42869]

All of my rage is directed solely towards homestead exempt houses, 2nd homes or investor homes (rentals) should get fucked for the full amount. (I have a rental in Travis and am not complaining about the assessed value there) 

[BillyGoatHill 4312]

59 minutes ago, immamac said:

All of my rage is directed solely towards homestead exempt houses, 2nd homes or investor homes (rentals) should get fucked for the full amount. (I have a rental in Travis and am not complaining about the assessed value there) 

You don't have a homestead exemption on your primary residence?

Edited May 10, 2022 by BillyGoatHill

[CooterBrown 18015]

With regards to rents getting out of control, saw one side of a duplex in Crestview renting for $4,100/mo. There was also a TikTok video that went viral a few weeks ago of an Austin renter whose rent went up from $2,100 to $4,600 IIRC.

[immamac 42869]

41 minutes ago, BillyGoatHill said:

You don't have a homestead exemption on your primary residence?

Homestead in Hays.

[Texas Jeff 1945]

Multiple schools don’t have working air conditioning due to budget shortfalls. They could use more money. Don’t confuse the nice new schools around southwest austin as being representative of the average condition of an AISD school.

My wife’s AISD classroom topped out at 91 degrees in mid Sept. The district did nothing for a month, then brought in a refrigerator truck in mid Oct and fed it to the building with a giant tube.

The next morning it was a cool 56 degrees in the classroom. They were able to open some windows to get it back into the mid 60s, and they used the windows as a quasi thermostat until the truck went away in December. The HVAC was declared repaired and life was ok … until a few weeks ago. Hot times are back and look to be here until the school year is over.

That’s the condition of AISD schools.

[We’reTexas 1473]

3 hours ago, immamac said:

It's what happened in SF, the difference there is the property tax is only assessed on the PURCHASE PRICE, and adjusted very slowly over time paired with a state income tax, but in exchange they have the best public school system in the country (all the way through university) and incredible public transportation pretty much everywhere. Is it still hard to live there? Sure, but the quality of life is far higher than shit hole Texas where it's 100 and school air conditioners don't work and we can't teach kids that people used to be racist and no one has access to any public services. 

Well, to be clear, SF has terrible public schools and a catastrophe of a public transportation department, and I only raise that to point out that this is because of the Prop 13 system, which starved municipalities of property tax revenue and put the burden on the state and an ever-dwindling number of new homebuyers. I think rate adjustments and an income tax could make sense for Texas, but the California model would be a disaster.