With Dallas County Taxes Expected to Surge in 2017, Homeowners Should Prep for Battle

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Unfair Tax Appraisal: How to Fight Against Them With Texas Tax Protest

What’s got Dallas County residents nervously waiting in anticipation? On May 1, property tax notices will begin appearing in mailboxes across the county and some residents will need to prep for a fight.

With the third highest effective property tax rates in the nation, Texas has been feeling the squeeze for years. And across Texas, 2017 tax notices are once again raising eyebrows and ire. Tarrant County residents saw a 9 percent increase over last year on average, with 1,300 people filing protests in the first week of notices being mailed. Travis County saw similar increases. Residential property values went up 8 percent and commercial property values went up 23 percent on average. In Harris County, residential property values went up 5.5 percent on average.

With mere weeks until property tax notices go out, experts predict the plight may be even graver for Dallas County residents.

Experts Foresee Further Property Tax Increases in Dallas County

“We expect to see some pretty large property tax increases based on the counties that have already released data,” said Patrick Melton, vice president of Texas Tax Protest. “Statewide, property values are up. Seeing that the market is even hotter in Dallas, I think values are going to increase substantially in Dallas.”

Dallas is hot, alright. Now at record highs, home prices – and resulting property taxes – in Dallas-Fort Worth have been sharply escalating year over year. A recent report by the Dallas Business Journal ranks DFW “No. 48 out of the top 100 U.S. metros in the report with home prices expected to increase 4.13 percent, with a sales growth of 5.09 percent.”

In North Texas, buyers are paying about a third more than the rest of the country for a single-family home,” [Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for California-based Realtor.com] said.

“Dallas is falling out of the ranks of being an affordable growth market,” said Smoke.

Come Out Fighting

Patrick Melton, Texas Tax Protest

Patrick Melton, Texas Tax Protest

As housing affordability slips out of reach, and tax values scream to new heights, it’s not great news for Dallas homeowners. In part, the system itself is to blame. Appraisal districts assign taxable value to properties on a mass appraisal system which, according to Melton, leaves considerable room for inaccuracies and errors. While it’s possible, fighting those inaccuracies as an individual homeowner can be daunting and requires considerable knowledge. But that’s where organizations like Texas Tax Protest come in.

“As a homeowner, you’re allowed to object to the notified value and file a protest. And that’s what we do. We handle the entire process for you,” said Melton. “We help homeowners make sure that the value that’s assigned to their property is a fair value.”

And if their value is not fair?

“Well, we can analyze their over assessment and negotiate a reduction – something that is more fair for the property for taxation purpose,” said Melton. “And as a homeowner, you can do this with no risk. Unless we actually save you money, there’s no fee.”

Don’t forget, once that notice shows up in your mailbox, you won’t have much time to react. The deadline to file a protest is May 31. Contact Texas Tax Protest online or at 214-960-5590.

Heather Hunter is an accomplished freelance writer based in North Texas.

3 Comments

  1. John on April 18, 2017 at 11:14 am

    I’m a full time teacher, and I saved for three years to buy a house back in 1998.

    My teacher salary is now reaching $48,000 per year.
    My house taxes is now reaching $10,000 per year.

    This system is wrong, plain wrong. What they are saying is that you have to get a job, try for the American dream, give back to society and pay your taxes. In reality it becomes… get a job – get a side job to pay for the taxes and upkeep – get a weekend job to pay for any living expenses – then sell your house because YOUR income is not increasing at the same rate ANY property value in america is… rent a tiny room somewhere in the country… and live bitter to the end.

    No thanks, America!

  2. dormand on April 18, 2017 at 6:13 pm

    Bloomberg is reporting that GOP conservative tax planners are contemplating axing the state and local tax deduction, which has more benefit for blue states:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-18/gop-targets-trillion-dollar-tax-breaks-for-democratic-states

    If this is not to your liking, you might consider writing to your Congressional representative protesting the elimination of the state and local tax deduction. One consideration to consider is the Financial Transfer Tax,
    which places a tiny tax on the transfer of stocks and bonds. This has little effect on most long term investors, but raises a TON of revenue from short term speculators, who may only hold a stock for nanoseconds.

  3. Brian on April 18, 2017 at 8:50 pm

    If my property taxes go up 9% this year there’s still a couple of things I can take solace in:

    1. The value of my property is going up at a rapid rate.
    2. It’s still taxed at a value far less than the market value (as is every home I know of).

    It’s still kind of a bummer and I agree with John that our wages will almost certainly not keep up.

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