Howdy Ags!

I'll be using this to thread to post any news about our upcoming 2025 property taxes. I'll be editing as we get more news on our taxes. Gig 'em!

The deadline to apply for a homestead exemption is on April 30th. The deadline to protest is on May 15th or 30 days after the notice of value was delivered to the property owner, whichever is later.

Travis County Property Tax Estimator

Hays County Property Tax Estimator

Wiiliamson County Property Tax Estimator

Appraisal notices are in the mail ...

Texas plans to spend $51 billion on property tax cuts

Texas House passes $337 billion budget; cutting property taxes, funding school vouchers

Austin faces widening budget deficits, rising property taxes, fees through 2020s

This will also be my first year protesting my property taxes. I decided to use TaxProtestMap for my first time, so I'll definitely keep y'all in the loop to see how it goes. My primary home is in Austin, but is in Hays county.

I am trying them as well. Last group was just ok, but prices were skyrocketing and I was still subject to the 10% cap.

both my Round Rock homes had minimal appreciation increase on last year's appraisal. This year both basically hit 10%. What happened this year that it's going up again by that much?

flintdragon said:

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both my Round Rock homes had minimal appreciation increase on last year's appraisal. This year both basically hit 10%. What happened this year that it's going up again by that much?

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Schools need stupid amounts of money in Round Rock.

RRISD spends about the same per student as other districts but we have a much greater share of the costs on our residents

This is for Dripping Springs ISD. Majority of the district is also locally funded.

Tried DIY TCAD protest for the first time online. It was easy. I doubt we have any wiggle room though. We shall see…

flintdragon said:

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both my Round Rock homes had minimal appreciation increase on last year's appraisal. This year both basically hit 10%. What happened this year that it's going up again by that much?

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Again why do people focus so much on the appraisal. I would bet your taxes would go up even if the appraisals were flat year over year for the whole district.

The tax rate is the real issue and is driven by spending (either debt service or operation budget). The only year over year growth in spending is from the 3% operation budge increase allowed by law and any debt service increase the voters approved.


The only way to be screwed is if your property is unfairly valued vs others in the district (i.e. values lowered or flat in one place and raised in other places).

Focus on solving the spending not your property assessment.

Why not both?

I am also in the camp of paying someone for their services to help "save" me money. Sure, I can probably do most of it, but I can also do more (work, free time, etc.) while someone is working on my behalf.

yeah, if the RR tax rate is going up, one can complain on that point. But they also control the appraisals. If it was just one of my properties going up, I could compare it to like properties for an adjustment. But both went up similar amounts so I'm assuming everyone's went up as well. There is very little adjustment to be made.

My question was what in the RR area has caused appraisals to go up after a one year hiatus. I don't see houses being sold at a high clip like in recent years.

Just got a 3% appraisal discount offer from TCAD after asking for 30%. Could press the button without a meeting and save a couple hundred dollars a month.

My appraisal in Leander is 5k less than last year which I protested down to a level I was happy with, I'll take it.

Willco new (to us) property. Appraisal was less than previous year, but still wildly higher than the average of every house in our neighborhood (approx $40 per square foot higher). Going to protest on unequal value and see how it goes.

I own 4 tracts in Hays County. One tract (15 acres) went up 35%. Another tract (1 acre) up 800%. The other 2 roughly flat, but they are the only ones with ag exemptions.

My Wilco appraisal went up by about 150K over the reduced appraised value was last year (after protest).

dmart90 said:

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My Wilco appraisal went up by about 150K over the reduced appraised value was last year (after protest).

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I had a similar experience in Hays County. I used an attorney and she was able to call the appraiser and settle for an amount slightly lower than the reduced amount after protest last year. She said the burden of proof is on the appraiser to show why the property value increased over the Appraisal Review Board's opinion of value last year.

I submitted for an in person protest and of course they scheduled it for 5/14 when I was out of state all week for business. I put in a request to move the date and of course the system does not allow you an option to pick a time. I haven't heard anything back in 3 weeks and have no idea when the new protest date will even be.

Cromagnum said:

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I submitted for an in person protest and of course they scheduled it for 5/14 when I was out of state all week for business. I put in a request to move the date and of course the system does not allow you an option to pick a time. I haven't heard anything back in 3 weeks and have no idea when the new protest date will even be.

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That's weird. I was able to pick a time that worked for me.

I have not seen anything formal taxprotestmap or TCAD, but looks like they knocked off $50k during the appeal process. The amount is still above the annual cap, so who knows if I taxprotestmap anything this year.

Considering that I have not been successful on my own, I will consider it a win.

We used a company to protest for the first time ever. We picked Ownwell b/c they're only commission based on actual savings, and many other companies are now charging a flat fee even if they don't save you anything. I think their percentage is 25%, which may seem high - but they knocked about $60k off and we didn't have to deal with TCAD. The few times I'd tried on my own through the videoconference protest I only got a token reduction.

I protested via 3rd party - had $110k dropped off my valuation (which was way over done in the first place and not even close to market) - SW austin near Regents/St. Michaels Area