Wondering what your property will value at this year? In the city of Austin, the answer is most likely the same as last year. The TCAD (Travis County Appraisal District) does not intend on reappraising properties this year.
So, why wouldn’t TCAD want to reappraise properties in one of the hottest housing markets in the country? The short answer is that they can’t get it done this year. TCAD has been in a dispute with the Austin Board of Realtors (ABOR) about where it has been obtaining its property value data from. in recent years, TCAD has obtained such data from the MLS, the same service that ABOR uses to buy and sell homes. Now, ABOR has sent a cease and desist letter to the Travis County Appraisal District and stopped them from using MLS data, which has been a key determiner in the appraisal valuation of homes.
In the state of Texas, sales prices for homes are not required to be disclosed, so without the MLS data, all the Travis County Appraisal District can do now is ask home owners to voluntarily share data with them. Without measurable data, it is anybody’s guess what will happen this year. It is likely that many home values will remain the same this year. If you have a homestead exemption, the most you will see your property value go up in any year is 10%, so it’s possible that TCAD will just defer to the 10% increase, especially if a home’s taxable value is still below the market value of the home.
School districts and other public services that rely on property tax funding could also be impacted this year. So what will 2020 bring? We will have to watch ongoing discussions between ABOR and TCAD. However, right now it looks like the property tax bill you receive in the fall will look a lot like a blast from the past.
