Property Taxes
Its TRUE … if you compare Spring Texas property taxes to other states they are higher. But WHY are they higher? Because Texas has NO state income tax. Thus we pay for our schools, roads, infrastructure, and social services through our property taxes.
Our real estate taxes have three components…..
1) County tax – The County for homes located in Spring Texas is either Harris County or Montgomery County. The county, county flood control, port of houston authority, county hospital district, county education department, junior college district – Lone Star college system, county emergency service district – fire, and the county emergency service – ambulance equal the total county tax. The 2007 tax rate for Harris County is $0.840233 and for Montgomery County it is $0.7538. The rates are for every $100 of assessed property value.
2) School District tax- Tax assessed by the school district that the property is located in. Homes located in Spring Texas are going to be in either the Conroe school district, the Klein school district, or the Spring school district. The 2007 tax rate for the Conroe school district is $1.24 and for the Klein school district it is $1.26 and for the Spring school district it is $1.44. All rates are for every $100 of assessed property value.
3) MUD (Municipal Utility District) tax- MUDs are the political entities which provide water and sewer services to the majority of residential and commercial property owners who do not receive those services from the City of Houston. The MUD tax rates range from $0.00 to $1.40 per every $100 of assessed value. Some of our older subdivisions that were developed in the late 1970s do not have a MUD tax because the bonds have been repaid.
The total combined tax rate of 1) County + 2) School District + 3) MUD = $2.10 to $3.68 per $100 of assessed value. The average combined tax rate in the Spring Texas area is $2.90. For a home with an assessed value of $150,000, the property tax burden before homestead, over 65, or disability exemption would range from $3,150 to $5,520 a year. The school district and the MUD taxes combined represent 50% to 80% of the total property tax burden.
All of the tax rates for the current tax year are released around the October / November time frame. Thus we currently only know the 2007 tax rate.
One more thing on the subject of real estate taxes is you may qualify for a homestead exemption that will REDUCE your total tax bill.
Below is additional information on our property taxes, how to qualify and receive tax exemptions, how to protest your taxes, and whether real estate taxes will be increasing or decreasing.
Harris County home values drop further in 2012
March 23rd, 2012 categories: Property Taxes
The Harris County appraisal district has finished their assessment of residential home values and not the bill but the value will soon be arriving in your mailbox.
How will your Spring Texas home fare? Will your home’s tax value be higher, lower, or stay the same? For the majority of Harris County homeowners the tax assessed value of their homes will remain the same for 2012. But some homeowners experienced a further decline in value in 2012. 
To the right is how the numbers break down for 2012.
If you don’t agree with the Harris County tax appraiser’s value of your Spring Texas home, you can protest its value. You have until May 31st or 30 days after the date your property tax notice was mailed whichever was later to notify the Harris County appraisal district of your intention to protest your home’s your value.
You can either go it alone and protest the tax assessed value of your Spring Texas home yourself or you can hire a property tax advisor to do the job for you. The majority of property tax advisors structure their fees such that if they don’t reduce your property taxes they don’t get paid.
Want to know what homes have been selling for in your Spring Texas subdivision? Send us an email at [email protected] requesting the recent sold data. Let us know whether you are in need of sold data for 1 or 2 story homes. We will email you the last six months of sales activity for your subdivision to use in protesting your real estate taxes.
Other articles on Spring Texas real estate taxes:
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Knock, Knock … It’s the tax man
March 7th, 2012 categories: Property Taxes
Has this situation ever happened to you? After hearing a knock on your front door, you get up to see who it is. But instead of finding a girl scout selling cookies on your front porch, you find an appraiser from the Harris County Appraisal District.
After showing you his identification badge and introducing himself, the appraiser bombards you with questions about your Spring Texas house.
- “How many rooms are there in your house?”
- “How many bathrooms do you have?”
- “Do you have a pool?”
- “Can I go into your backyard? I want to measure the exterior of your home to determine its square footage.”
You feel like you have just been put on trial and you are wondering what your rights are.
Do you have to answer the appraiser’s questions?
No. You do not have to answer the appraiser’s questions. You do not have to allow the appraiser to access your home nor your backyard.
The purpose for the appraiser’s questions is so the Harris County Appraisal District can calculate the appraised value of your home. Now, whether you help the appraiser calculate the appraised value of your home … that is up to you.
Read also:
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Understanding the Property Tax System
December 17th, 2011 categories: Property Taxes
In Spring Texas, our property tax system is comprised of four stages: 1. Appraising the taxable property, 2. Reviewing and equalizing the appraised values, 3. Adopting the tax rates and 4. Collecting the taxes.
Appraising the taxable property – Residential properties in Harris County are appraised as of January 1st of the tax year. An appraised value and a market value is determined for your home. Between January 1 – April 30th, the Harris County appraisal district also processes applications for exemptions with the most common exemption being the Homestead Exemption. You will be notified via mail of the tax assessed value of your home. But you can also go onto the Harris County website of www.hcad.org to view the tax assessed value.
Reviewing and equalizing the appraised values – If you believe the tax assessed value of your Spring Texas home is not correct, you have either 30 days from your date of notice or June 1st whichever is later to file a protest. The Harris County Appraisal Review Board begins hearing protests around May 15th.
Adopting the tax rates – Around September or October, the elected officials of the taxing units (County, MUD, and school districts) adopt the tax rates for the current year.
Collecting the taxes – You will receive a separate property tax bill from Harris County, your school district either Conroe, Klein, or Spring, and your M.U.D. Property tax bills begin showing up in mailboxes around the November time frame. You have until January 31st of the next following year to pay the real estate taxes. On February 1st, all unpaid taxes are considered delinquent and penalty and interest charges are applied.
Read also:
- Top 3 things you need to know about Spring Texas real estate taxes
- How to protest your Spring Texas real estate taxes
- Differences between tax assessed value and appraised value?
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Majority of Harris County home values remain unchanged for 2011
April 27th, 2011 categories: Property Taxes
For 2011 the Harris County Appraisal District tax assessed:
- 8% of single family homes at an increase over 2010
- 73% of single family homes at the same as 2010
- 19% of single family homes at a decrease over 2010
If the tax assessed value of your Spring Texas home remained the same or decreased in value over 2010 should you protest your real estate taxes? I say “Yes, you should”.
Why?? Just because the tax assessed value of your home remained the same or even decreased in value is NO guarantee that you are not overpaying. Maybe your tax assessed value was too high last year. Or maybe your tax assessed value decreased even further. If you don’t want to protest the tax assessed value of your Spring Texas home yourself, you can always hire a property tax advisor for you. The majority of property tax advisors structure their fees such that if they don’t reduce your property taxes they don’t get paid.
- What’s the difference between appraised vs market value?
- How to protest your Spring Texas real estate taxes?
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What are the tax advantages of owning a home?
February 23rd, 2011 categories: Home Buyer Information, Property Taxes
Are you looking for ways to cut your income taxes? Do what 34.6 million taxpayers already do to cut their taxes. They own a home and deduct the interest they paid on their home mortgages. The mortgage interest deduction cuts their federal income taxes by a total of nearly $77 billion.
What are the tax advantages of owning a Spring Texas home? There are 3 main tax deductions:
1. Mortgage interest - The interest you paid on your home’s mortgage. Your lender will send you a Form 1098 reflecting the amount of mortgage interest you paid for the year.
If you took advantage of the historically low interest rates and refinanced in 2010, you will receive a Form 1098 for each loan.
2. Property taxes - In Spring Texas, the school, county, and MUD taxes are deductible. If you escrow your real estate taxes, your lender will send you a Form 1098 reflecting the amount paid.
3. Mortgage insurance - If when you purchased your home you did not have a 20% down payment, you are probably paying for Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). Mortgage insurance is to protect the lender in the event you default on your loan and he is not able to recover his costs through the sale of the foreclosed property.
If the loan you received on your Spring Texas home was between the tax years of 2007 and 2010 then the mortgage insurance premiums may be deductible. I say may because if your Adjusted Gross Income for 2010 is more than $100,000 (more than $50,000 if married filing separately) the deduction is limited. If your AGI for 2010 is more than $109,000 (more than $54,500 if married filing separately) the deduction is eliminated and not available to you.
The amount you paid in mortgage insurance will be reflected on the Form 1098 you received from your lender. Mortgage insurance is not your homeowners insurance.
Home Owners Association (HOA) fees are not tax deductible. Based upon the high annual HOA fees of some subdivisions in Spring Texas, a tax deduction is certainly needed.
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Spring Texas Real Estate Taxes – Top 3 things you need to know
January 28th, 2011 categories: Home Buyer Information, Property Taxes
Top 3 things you need to know about Spring Texas real estate taxes:
1. You did NOT file for your homestead exemption at closing. Although you signed a pile of documents when you closed on your Spring Texas house, the homestead exemption form was not one of them. You can only file for the homestead exemption between January 1st - April 30th of the tax year.
If you are uncertain if your account has a homestead exemption, then go to either the Harris County Appraisal District website or the Montgomery County Appraisal District website. Any exemptions you have filed for and have been granted will be reflected on your tax account.
2. You can dispute the tax assessed value of your home. Either Harris County or Montgomery County Appraisal District will send you a notice of the appraised value for tax purposes of your Spring Texas house. You do not have to accept the appraisal district’s appraised value of your house. You can either dispute the value yourself or you can hire a tax firm such as O’Connor & Associates to do it for you.
3. You may owe more taxes than what’s in your escrow account. The amount being deposited into your escrow account each month is based upon your Spring Texas real estate taxes for the previous year. If the tax rates increase or the tax assessed value of your property increases for the current year, you will owe more real estate taxes than what’s in your escrow account.
Read also:
- How to file for a homestead exemption on your Spring Texas home
- How to dispute your Spring Texas real estate taxes
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How to file for a homestead exemption on your Spring Texas home
January 8th, 2011 categories: Property Taxes
If you bought a home in Spring Texas in 2010, you have until April 30th to file for a residential homestead exemption. The homestead exemption will reduce the tax assessed value of your house which saves you money on your Spring Texas real estate taxes.
There are additional exemptions available which may reduce your real estate taxes even further including exemptions for 65 and over, disability, 100% veterans and a surviving spouse.
The main things to remember are you have to file and you have to file for the exemption between January 1st and April 30th. You signed a lot of papers when you closed on your house but your homestead exemption was not one of them.
To get the Harris County homestead exemption form click here and for the Montgomery County homestead exemption click here.
Once you file for and receive a homestead exemption, you will continue to receive it. You don’t have to refile for it each year. This is good news because we push enough paper and have too many things to remember to do.
Read also:
- Does Montgomery County or Harris County have lower real estate taxes?
- How much will the homestead exemption save you on your real estate taxes?
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How to dispute your real estate taxes
May 22nd, 2010 categories: Property Taxes
If you haven’t filed a protest of your Spring Texas real estate taxes yet, you still can. But don’t wait too much longer as the protest deadline is June 1st. Once you decide to protest the tax assessed value of your Spring Texas house, the next decision you have to make is do you protest the value yourself or do you hire a property tax reduction firm to do it for you?
If you have the time to prepare, feel comfortable in presenting your data, and have the time to attend the scheduled protest, then you may want to go it alone. But before you decide which way to go, you need to know how to dispute your real estate taxes. The comptroller’s office for the state of Texas has put together a slide show presentation titled “How to Present Your Case at an Appraisal Review Board Hearing“. The presentation does an excellent job of explaining the tax protest process.
You can be successful in protesting your real estate taxes on your own. For the last several years, I have handled the protest myself and have successfully reduced my Spring Texas real estate taxes. This year, a property tax reduction firm will be handling my protest. Why would I want to pay someone for something I can do myself? After a preliminary review of the tax assessed value of my house, I determined the Harris County Appraisal District’s number to be pretty accurate and it’s not worth my time to protest. But it is worth me hiring a property tax reduction firm. Especially since I do NOT incur a cost unless they are able to reduce my taxes.
There is another bonus to having O’Connor and Associates protest my taxes. If they are unable to lower my real estate taxes, I receive a FREE $50 American Express gift card. Either way I win!
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How to protest Spring Texas real estate taxes
April 15th, 2010 categories: Property Taxes
Today is April 15th. The day the majority of us associate with as the day our income tax returns are due. I am not going to write about income taxes. Although I do have an accounting degree, I am not qualified to give advice on the many changes in the income tax laws. What I am qualified to write about is Spring Texas real estate and how you can protest your Spring Texas real estate taxes.
If you haven’t received your 2010 property valuation from the Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) yet, you will soon. As HCAD is projecting to have them in the mail during the month of April.
According to HCAD, 30% of the homes in Harris County received a decrease in their property valuations for 2010. While a mere 1% of the homes received an increased in their valuation.
If the value of your Spring Texas home decreased in 2010, don’t jump to the conclusion that you don’t need to protest the value. The value HCAD placed on your home for real estate tax purposes may be more than market value or may be more than the assessed value of your neighbors. If either one of these is the situation, you will want to protest your real estate taxes.
How to dispute your Spring Texas real estate taxes:
1. Determine if your property’s tax valuation accurately reflects the market value of your home as of January 1, 2009.
How do you determine if your value is accurate?
Contact a Spring Texas Real Estate Agent and ask her to provide you with the sales price of homes in your neighborhood. If homes are selling for more than the market value of your home, don’t dispute your valuation based on market value. But if
But before you decide not to dispute your valuation, determine if your property value is unequal compared with other properties. According to O’Conner & Associates, a property tax advisor, the majority of successful property tax disputes are those based upon unequal assessment.
How do you determine if your property’s tax value has been unequaled assessed? Go to HCAD and look up the tax assessed value of your neighbor’s home. Is their home similar to yours but their home is being assessed at a lower property valuation? If the answer is yes, then protest the valuation of your Spring Texas home based upon unequal assessment.
2. Determine if you want to dispute the value yourself or if you want to solicit the help of a property tax advisor.
3. If you decide to dispute the property valuation yourself, you can file your protest online at the Harris County Appraisal District’s website. HCAD will notify you of the date and time your protest has been scheduled. On the day of your appointment, you should arrive on time, be armed with data to present that supports your valuation, and be friendly to the assessor.
4. If you decide to solicit the help of a property tax advisor, you can contact either O’Conner & Associates or Bettencourt Tax Advisors. O’Conner & Associates and Bettencourt both require you to sign a service agreement.
If O’Conner & Associates (www.cutmytaxes.com) is successful in reducing your property tax valuation, they charge you 50% of the tax savings. For example, if your property’s tax valuation is $150,000 and O’Conner & Associates was successful in reducing your property’s tax valuation to $140,000 their fee is $10,000 * your tax rate. If your tax rate is 3.0%, their fee would be $10,000 * 3.0% *50% equaling $150.00.
Bettencourt Tax Advisors (www.paulbettencourt.com) is a property tax consultant firm formed by Paul Bettencourt. Paul Bettencourt was the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector for many years before resigning in 2008. Their firm’s fee is 40% of the tax savings. If they are unsuccessful in reducing your real estate taxes, they will charge you their minimum fee of $75.00
You have until May31st or 30 days after the date your property tax notice was mailed whichever was later to protest your property tax valuation. If you decide to dispute your property tax valuation, Good Luck and remember you never get anything unless you try.
Read also:
- How to save money on your Spring Texas real estate taxes
- What is the value of the over 65 exemption?
- The difference between tax assessed value and market value
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What’s the value of the over 65 exemption?
February 19th, 2010 categories: Property Taxes
Are you going to be turning 65 soon? If so, you are probably already aware that you are eligible for Medicare. But did you know you will be eligible for a reduction in your Spring Texas real estate taxes? That’s right another reason to get excited about turning 65.
Unlike the homestead exemption that comes with restrictions on when you can apply for and receive it, the over 65 exemption has only one restriction and that is you have to wait until you reach the age of 65.
What you really want to know is what’s the value of the over 65 exemption? How much will your Spring Texas real estate taxes reduce? I dig numbers and I don’t know any better way to show you the money than through the use of a spreadsheet / chart. Click on the chart to get a larger image and a better view.
Since the over 65 exemption varies based upon county (Harris County is $160,000 and Montgomery County is $35,000), school district (Klein School District is $23,330 and Spring School District is $30,000), and MUD, I had to use some assumptions to calculate the savings in real estate taxes.
The assumptions used were:
- House is located in Harris County, Klein School District, and MUD 104
- Tax assessed value of property is $165,000
Based upon these assumptions, your annual real estate taxes for your Spring Texas home with no exemptions is $4,532.
Qualifying and receiving the homestead exemption, will reduce your taxes to $4,114. A savings of $418.
Qualifying and receiving the homestead exemption and the over 65 exemption, will reduce your taxes to $2,712. A combined savings of $1,820 or a 40% reduction in your real estate taxes. Dependent upon the county you reside in, you will either need to fill out and the over 65 exemption form for Harris County or the over 65 exemption form for Montgomery County.
Plus the over 65 exemption, freezes the school tax portion of your real estate taxes. The school tax portion will not increase with rate increases in the school tax nor with increases in the value of your Spring Texas home. But it will increase if you make substantial improvements to your home through the addition of a pool or another room.
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