I live in Denton County, TX. In mid-January of 2025, I bought my house, cash sale, no appraisal. A few months later I got my appraisal from the Denton CAD at about 50% higher than the sale price. I went in to the CAD in June of 2025 and explained the cash price paid and they quickly set the appraised value at the sale price from the January sale. Now, I just got my appraisal for 2026. It's 37% higher than the January 2025 sale price that the property was appraised at by the CAD in June 2025. This makes no sense as all indications are that prices have gently declined in this area in the past year. To compound matters, I have both the homestead (HS) and the over 65 (OV65) exemptions which would limit the year over year maximum appraised value increase to 10%, so it seems the CAD has ignored those exemptions.
I can think of a few ways to argue for a steep decrease in the recent appraised value:
1. The preferred argument would be that the January 2025 sale price, which was the basis of the 2025 adjustment by the CAD, sets the market value at that time. I think it would be easy to assemble some credible sources in support of declining prices since that purchase date. Accordingly, the correct appraised value should be the sale price in January 2025 adjusted downward by the documented drop in sales prices in this area.
2. Assemble comps of recent sales in this area and show that those comps suggest a lower appraised value for my house. I think this is an uphill battle. First, there aren't many comps in the nearby area to draw from. Second, any comps that can be found are likely to reflect a price that is unrealistically high relative to my house. The reasons for this pertain to factors that don't show up well in written comps. Those factors include an undesirable layout, interior colors and styling that are less popular than is typical for a house of a similar build date. Poor overall trim, finish, carpentry, house is in a 100-year flood zone, smaller patio, garage and pantry than typically found in a house of the same listed square feet.
3. The appraised value exceeds the 10% maximum yearly increase limited by the HS and OV65 exemptions. This too is an undesirable argument since it would result in a 10% increase over last year, where a successful protest based on argument 1) above, would result in a nominal decrease relative to last year's appraised value.
My questions:
I would like to construct my protest on the sole basis of argument 1) above.
I can think of a few ways to argue for a steep decrease in the recent appraised value:
1. The preferred argument would be that the January 2025 sale price, which was the basis of the 2025 adjustment by the CAD, sets the market value at that time. I think it would be easy to assemble some credible sources in support of declining prices since that purchase date. Accordingly, the correct appraised value should be the sale price in January 2025 adjusted downward by the documented drop in sales prices in this area.
2. Assemble comps of recent sales in this area and show that those comps suggest a lower appraised value for my house. I think this is an uphill battle. First, there aren't many comps in the nearby area to draw from. Second, any comps that can be found are likely to reflect a price that is unrealistically high relative to my house. The reasons for this pertain to factors that don't show up well in written comps. Those factors include an undesirable layout, interior colors and styling that are less popular than is typical for a house of a similar build date. Poor overall trim, finish, carpentry, house is in a 100-year flood zone, smaller patio, garage and pantry than typically found in a house of the same listed square feet.
3. The appraised value exceeds the 10% maximum yearly increase limited by the HS and OV65 exemptions. This too is an undesirable argument since it would result in a 10% increase over last year, where a successful protest based on argument 1) above, would result in a nominal decrease relative to last year's appraised value.
My questions:
I would like to construct my protest on the sole basis of argument 1) above.
- Does anyone know if the Denton CAD has any history of honoring the argument seen in 1) above?
- Any idea how good my chances would be using an argument based on a year-old sale price adjusted by price changes over the same period of time (sources of market price changes can be found on Ntreis, Redfin, Zillow)??
- Are there other credible sources that offer market price changes in Denton County?