PROTESTING PRICES Travis County homeowners who disagree with their home valuation can protest it with the county. Here are the numbers of homeowners who have disputed their valuation over the last ve years.
“There is extremely low inventory, and the buyers are outpacing our inventory by four or ve times.” TCAD Chief Appraiser Marya Crigler said the rising home prices are a sim- ple side e ect of supply and demand. The Austin area has seen an in ux of technology jobs with Tesla moving to East Austin and Apple and Sam- sung announcing large investments in the area. Austin’s job market and economy bounced back quickly from pandemic losses, according to city data, partly because of new employ- ers and an in ux of new residents. Additionally, housing inventory levels have also been at record lows. In March, Travis County had 0.6 months of housing inventory, accord- ing to Austin Board of Realtors data. “We are at a point now where we are not measuring [housing supply] in terms of months; we’re not measuring it in terms of weeks; we’re measuring it in terms of days,” Crigler said. “So there’s a real supply shortage but still high demand.” With each home that sells above asking price, Gri n said another comp is created that drives home val- ues up. Barring any major economic downturns, Gri n said he expects the median price point for homes to increase for at least the next three to ve years. “This is not just a crazy snapshot of the market,” Gri n said. “No, this
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limit an increase in their tax burden will mean most residents will not see as high of an increase on their tax bill. In Texas, homeowners are eligible for a homestead exemption on their primary residence. That exemption includes local tax bene ts and a cap that limits a property’s taxable value to no more than a 10% increase each year. To earn that cap, residents had to have lived in their home for at least a year as of Jan. 1 of the year the tax value is assessed. Jowlabar and other 2021 homebuyers will not be eligible for the cap until 2023. Unprecedented appraisals This year’s valuations represent a record high year-over-year increase, according to Travis County data. The median appraised home value in Travis County increased from $411,261 to $632,208 in 2022. Previ- ously, values have increased an aver- age of 13% year over year if factoring in the most recent year, or roughly 7%-8% excluding last year’s outlying increase, according to data from the Travis Central Appraisal District. Tim Landy, an Austin Realtor with Twelve Rivers Realty, said the values are in line with what he has been see- ing in the housing market. “The market right now is a lot like what we saw last year,” Landy said.
150K
+13.82%
140K
130K
120K
0
2019
2017
2018
2020
2021
SOURCE: TRAVIS CENTRAL APPRAISAL DISTRICTCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
The average Austin homeowner’s tax payments increased 0.6% despite a median property value increase of 16% because local entities are limited as to how much they can increase their tax revenue. DID YOU KNOW?
is going to change the real estate dynamic in Austin and the surround- ing areas for a decade or more.” Understanding your bill Adam Perdue, an economist with the Texas Real Estate Research Cen- ter, said there are a lot of misconcep- tions about how property taxes work. The main reason for the confusion, he said, is because property taxes do not normally increase this sharply, so people are paying more attention than before. The rst misconception he sees is people not believing their value could have increased so much. “Everyone is used to pretty con- sistent taxes,” Perdue said. “The fed- eral government doesn’t adjust taxes every year. Sales tax doesn’t change every year.” Because of this, he said property tax bills can come as a shock. Perdue said that while there is room for error, many people are see- ing increases inline with their area. “I’ve gotten to look at what the appraisal districts do and what the counties do, and I couldn’t do it bet- ter,” Perdue said. “That is not to say that they didn’t get a particular prop- erty wrong, but in aggregate, they
seem to get it right.” The second misconception Perdue sees is the belief that an increase in the taxable value in someone’s home will translate into a proportional increase in the their tax bills. Property values are only one fac- tor in the tax formula. The other is property tax rates, which are set by taxing entities, including school dis- tricts, cities and counties, during their annual budgeting process. A 2019 Texas law capped the rev- enue counties and cities can make from property tax increases to 3.5% on existing properties without need- ing voter approval, according to the Texas Association of Counties. A 2.5% cap was also implemented for school districts. Last year the city passed it’s FY 2022 budget with a 3.5% property tax revenue increase, which the city said translated to around an 0.6% increase
Homeowners who purchased their homes in 2021 will not have their taxable value capped until 2023. TAXABLE VALUATION CAP
CALCULATING PROPERTY TAXES The assessed value of a property is only half of the equation used to calculate the property taxes a homeowner owes. The other half is the tax rate. The following tax rates apply to the 2021-22 tax rates. ASSESSED VALUE X TOTAL TAX RATE100
ENTITY*
TAX VALUE
$1.0617
Austin ISD:
$0.5410
City of Austin:
$0.3574
Travis County:
= PROPERTY TAXES OWED
$0.1118
Other:
SOURCE: CITY OF AUSTINCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
$0.1048
Austin Community College:
*THIS LIST IS NONCOMPREHENSIVE AND DOES NOT INCLUDE MUNICIPAL UTILITY DISTRICTS OR EMERGENCY SERVICES DISTRICTS.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 2019, state lawmakers passed legislation capping the amount of revenue local entities can make in property taxes from existing properties as 3.5% for cities and counties and 2.5% for schools.
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