Most residential property values in Harris County have increased since last year, leading to a surge in appraisal protests and legislation proposed to address rising tax rates. However, this year’s increases are less steep, according to the Harris County Appraisal District.
This year, 58 percent of residential property values increased. HCAD assigned increases to 59 percent of county properties in 2016, 83 percent in 2015 and 72 percent in 2014.
HCAD Chief Communications Officer Jack Barnett said the number of properties receiving a higher appraisal is leveling off after sharp increases occurred in 2014 and 2015. Before that, property values had decreased significantly during the recession that began in 2008.
“The Houston economy was one of the first in the nation to start rebounding, and there was a lot of job growth and a lot of people were moving back into the area and starting to buy properties. That was the reason that property values were increasing,” Barnett said.
This trend is reflected in the average market value of homes in Spring and Klein. In Klein ISD, the average market value of a home increased 18 percent in 2014 from 2013, but it has climbed only 3 percent so far in 2017, according to HCAD.
In the area of Spring ISD west of I-45 and north of FM 1960, the average market value of a home rose 14 percent in 2014 and 8 percent so far in 2017. And in the area east of I-45 and north of FM 1960, the average market value of a home rose 21 percent in 2014 and only 10 percent so far in 2017.
Protest of values
HCAD bases its property value assessments on the sale prices of similar properties in the area, Barnett said. After the appraisal office sends assessment values to property owners, homeowners have the right to protest the amounts if they think they are inaccurate or unfair—the deadline to file a protest is May 31.
This year, 371,000 protests have been filed, which is an increase from 365,000 last year. Barnett said about 355,000 protests have been filed every year for the past five, but the number is increasing as the county’s population increases.
Protests can be resolved online, in person with a district appraiser or by an appraisal review board, which consists of local citizens and which functions independently from HCAD.
Barnett said HCAD has held workshops at churches and community centers throughout the greater Houston Area every spring since 2014 to increase public awareness of the assessment process, the protest process and the agency’s connection to property taxes.
With all of the attention property taxes received in the state legislative session, Barnett said it is increasingly important the public understands the appraisal district’s role: it does not set the tax rate, send a tax bill or collect taxes.
Lawmaker’s concerns
In the special legislative session that begins July 18, Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said he plans to continue to pursue property tax reform legislation.
During the regular session Bettencourt authored Senate Bill 2, which proposed lowering the property tax revenue cap for cities and counties from an increase of 8 percent to an increase of 4 percent.
The bill also called for elections to be held if a city or county were to exceed the revenue cap. The bill did not pass the House, but Bettencourt said he will reintroduce similar legislation when lawmakers meet again.
Bettencourt said he wrote SB 2 after hearing almost 50 hours of public testimony on how increasing property taxes have become a burden for taxpayers.
Amy Smythe-Harris, owner of Urban Provision Realtors in Houston, said she has heard similar claims from clients this year.
“This past year was a huge increase in assessed value—not the tax itself but the assessed value,” Smythe-Harris said.
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett has said there is little flexibility in reducing property taxes as a revenue source because the county’s continuous growth means it needs to be able to provide for increasingly larger numbers of residents.
However, Harris County provides a property tax exemption—which the Commissioners Court in June voted to extend by a year—for residents who are older than 65. Qualifying homeowners do not have to pay county taxes on the first $160,000 of their property value.
