The Housing Market’s On Fire, So Brace For That Appraisal Coming in the Mail

The significant jump in home prices in North Texas means a historic high value for your property if you’re selling.

But for those not in the market to buy, it means that walk back from the mailbox while scanning the local appraisal district’s notification probably isn’t going to be much fun. An increase in value equals higher property taxes.

That’s what we face in this housing market as appraisals loom.

“Markets are up, so I expect values to go up,” Will Wiggins of North Texas Property Tax Services, told Dave Lieber, The Dallas Morning News’ Watchdog editor.

All the cool kids doing the reports say they will.

An ATTOM Data Solutions 2020 Property Tax Analysis shows that nationwide property tax hauls last year were up 5.45 percent.

“Homeowners across the United States in 2020 got hit with the largest average property tax hike in the last four years,” Attom Data’s Todd Teta said in the report. “The increase was twice what it was in 2019.”

In 2021, Texans should expect some sticker shock.

In a new report from Texas Real Estate Research Center and North Texas Real Estate Information Systems, the price per square foot of homes sold rose 19 percent in March 2020.

The median price of a single-family house jumped by 16 percent to $312,000, the highest price ever for property sales in North Texas.

Texas doesn’t have an income tax, of course, but Attom Data found that the state had one of the highest average property tax rates in the nation last year. Texas’ rate was 2.15 percent, just below New Jersey (2.2 percent) and Illinois (2.18 percent). Dallas County had a 2.4 percent rate.

Collin County had the largest annual average single-family home tax bill at $7,756. The average home property bill in the U.S. was $3,719, according to Attom.

If you’re a homeowner, here’s wishing you good luck when you head to the mailbox.