Tag: Property Taxes

Texas Legislature

Texas Lege Signs Off On School Finance, Property Tax Relief Bill

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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott, and Texas Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen announced both chambers of the state legislature had come to an agreement on a sweeping school finance and property tax relief bill.

Squeaking in just before May 27 and sine die, lawmakers in the state House and Senate passed a school finance bill that will provide raises for teachers, pre-K, and property tax relief.

The final OK comes a day after Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen announced that the two chambers had managed to come to a compromise on competing bills to hammer out school finance and property tax relief measures.

“We would not be here today, making the announcement we are about to make, without the tireless efforts of the members of the Texas House and Senate,” Abbott told reporters gathered at the Governor’s Mansion Thursday. All three had promised at the beginning of the legislative session that the focus would be on school finance reform and property tax relief.

“We’re here to tell you we’ve been all together and we’ve stayed all together,” Bonnen said. “We didn’t get here without being a team.” (more…)
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Property Tax Protest Deadline Is Today, And Filing Is Easy

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Photo courtesy publicdomainpictures.net

Don’t say we didn’t warn you — the deadline for property tax protests is uh, today. And if you think this requires a massive scramble of documentation to file, we have good news: It can take as little as 10 minutes.

We’ve been telling you about PropertyTax.io since last year. It’s an online tool developed by Goodrich Realty Consulting, first as a tool for their tax consultants to use in the company’s property tax division. Last year, they released the tool to the general public, and it is really shaking up the way people appeal their property tax bills.

So how does it work? In just a few seconds, you can log on to the PropertyTax.io website, put in your address, and register. The next screen will tell you if, based on the algorithms that factor in comparable properties using several data sets, including MLS data and appraisal district data, you’d have success in appealing your taxes this year. (more…)
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Dallas County Appraisal District

The $2 Million Swing: DCAD Valuations for Slice of Fitzhugh Avenue Revisited

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How could it be that in Dallas neighborhoods booming with redevelopment, that multifamily properties and investment properties haven’t seen any increases in their appraisals?

Last week, I wrote an update on the DCAD valuations for properties that are part of a block on Lemmon Avenue that was to have been the site of a Central Market (before HEB shifted plans to McKinney Avenue). That story showed DCAD substantially raising the assessed valuations in 2019.

But as you know, I’ve written a few stories on DCAD, and particularly one on properties at the end of a block of Fitzhugh Avenue bounded by Swiss and Gaston Avenues.  I’d seen a new listing for a 616-square-foot detached house at 921 N. Fitzhugh and was curious. The price seemed high, but it was a good-ish location, so I checked the taxes. That check expanded to encompass 13 properties at the end of the block. What I found was astonishing. Two apartment buildings hadn’t seen a penny increase in their appraised value in five years. Another investment property whose value had bounced around between $75,500 and $78,560 since 2011.

What happened in 2019 is equally astonishing …

(more…)
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Property Taxes

Stop Everything: Have You Filed Your Homestead Exemption?

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homestead

Photo courtesy Flickr

 

Easter is over, but we’re going to quote a rabbit anyway — if you’re waiting to file your homestead exemption for your property taxes, you may find yourself late, late, for a very important date.

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Property Tax Protests: What Condition My Condition Is In

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Property Tax

Photo courtesy Pixabay

So you’ve gotten that property tax valuation, and in the process of slamming it down on the table, you notice a giant crack on the ceiling.

“Surely,” you think, “if I take a picture of this, it’ll help me argue my case that the appraisal district did me wrong!”

Yes, and no.

See, it’s April 17 now, and that wear and tear you want to use to argue that the condition of your house does not match your valuation? That needed to be present on January 1.

“The value assigned to your property, by law, is the value the appraisal district estimates your property would sell for on January 1st of that year,” explained Glenn Goodrich, Goodrich Realty Consulting’s Director of Technology & Property Tax. GRC created PropertyTax.io last year to help people DIY their property tax protests, and this year, they’re debuting a second product that helps consumers argue condition issues when protesting their valuation. (more…)
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Property Tax Bills Are Coming — Are You Ready?

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property taxProperty tax bills will be hitting mailboxes this month, and if you’re like many homeowners in Texas, you might experience a bit of sticker shock.

And you might even think about protesting that valuation to get a lower bill, but where do you start? After all, the deadline to file a protest is May 15 — which is not too far away.

Luckily, one local business has made it quite easy to gather the evidence and file a protest — PropertyTax.io.

We first told you about PropertyTax.io last year, but for the uninitiated, it’s a web-based product developed by Goodrich Realty Consulting, first as a tool for their tax consultants to use in the company’s property tax division. Last year, they released the tool to the general public, and it is really shaking up the way people appeal their property tax bills. (more…)
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Tarrant County Tuesday

Tarrant County Taxes: Something’s Gotta Give

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According to a recent report from CoreLogic, home prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex increased by nearly 4 percent from February 2018 to February 2019.

In the State of Texas, Fort Worth took home first prize as the municipality where home prices increased the most during that span with 5.7 percent increase.  Not a prize to be proud of, necessarily.

This is nothing new.  We have seen home prices increase since the Great Recession.  While price increases certainly aren’t fun for home buyers, they haven’t stopped the Dallas-Fort Worth area from being one of the hottest relocation destinations in the United States

Tarrant Tax Appraisal District Doing Its Thing

What is unsettling is that local municipalities continue to abuse this housing boom and overall strong economy to inflate property values when it comes to tax appraisal time.

In a recent story by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Tarrant County chief appraiser Jeffrey Law was quoted that 2019 tax values would most likely increase 7 to 10 percent.

(more…)
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Property Taxes

Richardson ISD Adds Its Bill to Neave’s Property Tax Tab

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Texas Legislature
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NeaveOn the heels of the revelation that Dallas County is suing State Rep. Victoria Neave for more than $26,000 in late property taxes on her Abrams Road home, Richardson ISD has filed documentation that would bring Neave’s total delinquent tax tab to more than $50,000.

The district filed an intervening motion March 1 that added its $23,948.58 to Neave’s previously reported $26,760.73 the county already named in the suit filed on Feb. 28.

The potential for the intervention was mentioned in the original suit, which said, in part, that Richardson would likely also join as a party to the suit, “because it may have a claim for delinquent taxes against all or part of the same property.”

Neave represents District 107, which includes parts of East Dallas and Mesquite. (more…)
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