Homeowners across Texas may consider them burdensome, but property taxes are just as important as the principal and interest portion of your house payment. While the neighborhood, house features, and other factors of your home can impact the initial sales price and 30 years of mortgage payments, those same factors can also impact your property tax bill throughout the years.
Whether you live in Houston or Humble—or you’re planning on buying a house here—it’s important to know all the ins and outs of Harris County property taxes. The more you know about the details and calculations, the better you can advocate for lower rates and payments on your property. But it’s important to focus specifically on the taxes in your area rather than just the statewide level.
What Every Homeowner Needs to Know About the Harris County Property Tax Calculation Process
Texas has the sixth highest property tax rate in the country—but that’s an oversimplification. Texas doesn’t have a state property income tax. Instead, local governments establish tax rates on the city and county level based on their individual budgets. No matter where you live in Texas, it’s important to know what your area’s levies are and understand your property tax obligations.
Harris County, one of the biggest counties in the state, has a complex property tax system with lots of levies for different towns and municipalities. Some of the advantages of learning about your local area’s property taxes are:
- You can better understand the moving parts of the tax calculation and billing process.
- You can protect your finances with tax reduction strategies like exemptions and property tax protests.
- If you’re thinking about moving to the area, you can weigh the tax rates of different cities within Harris County so your next home fits comfortably within your budget.
The current Harris County property tax rate is 2.13%, which is higher than the general state average. Harris County is continually growing, taking on new improvement projects, and making significant changes to its school districts. But even within Harris County, your tax rate may grow to 2.2% or shrink below 2% depending on the exact city you live in and which levies apply to your property. These tax rates also fluctuate yearly depending on city, county, and school ISD budgetary decisions.
Related: Homestead Cap in Texas: Your Shield Against Property Tax Hikes
Fluctuating tax rates can be stressful for homeowners, whether you’re on a fixed income or prefer to have a consistent budget. Before you can fight for lower and more predictable taxes, it pays to have an understanding of the overall property tax system.
A General Overview of the Calculation Process
While Harris County property tax rates may differ, the processes are largely the same as those across the state. Here’s a brief outline of the tax calculation process:
- Local appraisers determine the market value of homes within their jurisdiction. Most home values are determined by reasonable fair market value, but this can differ from what homes might actually sell for on the market from year to year (or even from month to month). Agricultural homesteads can receive a special exemption and be evaluated based on their production value instead, but that is less common.
- Homeowners receive notification of their home’s appraised value for the current tax year. If your home’s value doesn’t increase, you can look it up on your local appraisal district website. But if the value does increase, the district office must send you a Notice of Appraised Value.
- Homeowners have a limited time to protest their appraisal value. This is what people commonly refer to as protesting property taxes. In the spring, you can file a notice of protest. You’ll provide a counter appraisal value, explain why you believe the district’s number is wrong, and provide evidence to support your lower valuation. The deadline for this process is around May 15th.
- Homeowners move through the protest process. After filing the notice, homeowners may receive communication from the appraisal district, including:
- An agreement to the new valuation
- A middle-ground compromise, which homeowners are free to agree to or continue to protest
- Invitations to informal meetings for negotiation
- A formal hearing date: During the hearing, an appraiser from the local appraisal office and the homeowner (or their representative) will present arguments in front of an appraisal review board (ARB). The ARB will listen to both sides, weigh the evidence, and present a final appraisal value. This number is entered into the final record.
- Tax assessors then calculate tax bills: Tax assessors first calculate the assessed value, or taxable value, from the appraisal value by making considerations for any exemptions you have on your property. For example, under a homestead exemption, $100,000 of your home’s value is waived for calculating school district taxes. Once tax assessors have determined your property’s taxable value and individual levy rates, they’ll calculate your total Harris County property tax bill.
- You receive your bill, and payment is due January 31st: Payment is due following the end of the tax year. For example, your 2024 property tax bill (which is based on your home’s value as of January 1, 2024) will be due January 31, 2025. However, if you have a mortgage, you likely have an escrow account. Through this account, your lender accumulates monthly payments of estimated property taxes so they can send the total payment on your behalf.
Related: A Texas Homeowners’ Guide to Protesting Taxes: A Step-by-Step Approach
Understanding the timeline is crucial, no matter where you live in the state. Once you know how all the moving parts fit together, you can focus on two main property tax savings strategies: protesting your property taxes with your local appraisal district every spring and making sure you have all of the exemptions your property qualifies for.
A Few Harris County-Specific Details
While the process looks largely the same in every county, small (but significant) details vary from region to region. When you live in Harris County, make sure you know these particulars:
- Contact your local appraisal district office: If you have a property anywhere in the county, Harris Central Appraisal District is the office you’ll contact or visit for protests. This should not be confused with the Harris County Tax Office.
- You’ll see more individual levies on your property documents. Every property tax rate is a sum of all the levies that apply. In Houston, you’ll have individual levies for your school district, county, flood control, Port of Houston Authority, hospital taxes, education department taxes, the Lone Star College system, and city taxes. Not only are you paying taxes that don’t apply to other counties (such as flood control), but this line is broken down into more granular details than you’ll see on, for example, Collin County property tax records.
- You can look up appraisal records. Every county has a distinct central appraisal district website. While not all counties have online records, Harris County maintains very detailed records on every property in the jurisdiction. You can look up your own home, homes you might buy, or similar properties if you want to see property tax records in more detail.
How Homeowners Can Fight for Lower Harris County Property Taxes
In Harris County, your property receives a new appraisal value each year. However, appraisers only have to individually appraise your home’s value at least once every three years. In other years, algorithms and software use general market trends to adjust your home’s value. If you believe the notice you get in the spring is inaccurate or you think you’re paying unfair property taxes, there are a few paths you can take to fight for lower property taxes.
1. File Your Homestead Exemption
If you own your primary residence, you can apply for a homestead exemption. This provision gives qualifying homeowners two benefits:
- A $100,000 exemption on your school district taxes as discussed earlier.
- A homestead cap: This limits increases on your home’s taxable value by 10%. If market forces increase your home’s value by 12%, 15%, or even 25%, your taxable value will only go up by 10% (excepting any increases due to property improvements).
There are additional exemptions and benefits you may qualify for depending on your age, disability status, and other factors.
2. Find your property’s profile online.
By locating your property’s profile on the Harris County Central Appraisal District site, you can review your property details. There, you can access your appraisal value, individual levies and tax rates, and other details. This information can help you forecast property tax costs and make sure your county’s records are accurate.
3. Protest Your Property Taxes Every Year
Protest your home’s appraisal value every spring. This allows you to lower the appraisal value as much as possible, which can lower your taxable value in turn. When you diligently protest each year or hire a service to do so on your behalf, you can prevent the value from creeping upward and becoming unfairly high. Doing this every year has compounding benefits, as each subsequent year starts from a lower appraisal value than you might have otherwise had.
Get Experts to Help You Navigate Your Path to Savings and Lower Harris County Property Tax Bills
Whether you’re moving to Harris County or you’re a long-time resident, start taking active steps to make sure you’re paying fair property taxes. The team of tax experts at Home Tax Shield can help. Sign up today to have a team of professionals manage your property tax protest for you. We’ll file the notices, gather evidence, and represent you in appraisal hearings every year.