As Texas home prices continue to rise, dragging up appraisal values with them, there is growing pressure to lower property tax rates to keep tax bills from shooting up.
Elected officials across the state are taking note, and some, like in the Woodlands, have already reduced tax rates to their lowest in history. But not everyone is hopping on the tax-reduction bandwagon. Some are opting to keep their rates steady despite the jump in appraised values.
➤ The Frisco City Council voted on Sept. 20 to keep the property tax rate at $0.4466 per $100 property valuation — the same as it’s been for the previous five years.
Property valuations in the DFW suburb are expected to rise 15.61 percent, so the tax rate will raise about $19.7 million more revenue than last year, according to city documents.
About 37 percent of that revenue will come from new properties, which have been ramping up in the city as developers bring more multi– and single-family projects into the city.
The Frisco City Council adopted a tax rate freeze earlier this year for homeowners above the age of 65 that included a homestead exemption of $80,000. The regular homestead exemption rate was increased from 10 percent to 12.5 percent.
➤ The city of San Marcos, which sits between Austin and San Antonio, is also keeping its previous property tax rate, sticking to $0.6030 per $100 valuation at its September 20 meeting.
Property values have continued to rise in San Marcos as they have in surrounding cities like Austin, now hitting around $388,000 on average, a jump of 18.1 percent from the same time last year.
➤ The Houston suburb of Bellaire also kept its tax rate the same at $0.4473 per $100 valuation during its September 19 meeting.
Bellaire is one of the wealthiest suburbs in the entire state of Texas, and home values in Bellaire sit at just over $1,000,000 on average, and the median household income sits at $84,452, a whopping 168 percent more than the state’s median income of $31,462.
➤ The Tomball ISD board of trustees approved a new property tax rate of $1.23 per $100 valuation — $0.02 less than the previous rate — at its September 13 meeting.
The average assessed value of properties in Harris County and Tomball ISD has increased by 21 percent and 24.8 percent, respectively, since last year.
➤ For its part the Austin suburb of Hutto has approved a much lower property tax rate of $0.42198 per $100 valuation for the fiscal year 2022-23.
This is around a 21.3 percent decrease from the previous rate, but as a no-new-revenue rate, it will bring in the same amount of revenue as last year.
Hutto has been particularly popular with some of the big tech companies making their home in the Austin area, which have helped drive up economic development and grow the suburb’s revenue base.