Many East and Central Austin homeowners were upset when they received their property tax bills a few months ago. May 31st was the last day to protest, but many are now just checking to see if their taxes were increased. I count myself in the few who delayed. To my dismay, my property taxes had increased 97% in a single year.
For background, I purchased a 3100sqft home in the popular 78702 zip code in Central East Austin in August 2004. The tax appraised value at the time was $247,000, but I picked it up as a bank foreclosure for $150k. Since I had not paid anywhere close to $200k for the house, I was able to get the taxes lowered, but only to $170k because of a loophole where they can only lower the taxes by a certain percentage during the "late" property tax dispute rounds.
After spending about $25-30k on work on the inside of the property, the home was reassessed in 2005 for $186k. I thought this was not a fair increase, but did not have time to protest. Now, in 2006, the city is claiming that my property is valued at $305,000, a full $116k increase from just last year! I was absolutely shocked.
It has long been a complaint that Texans pay some of the highest property taxes in the country. My fellow Austinites and I pay some of the highest property taxes in the state at a 2.711 rate. Now, Central and East Austin residents are seeing our property taxes almost double in single years, mostly due to speculation from investors and out-of-town buyers.
I've been helping other residents try to win their protest cases, but it may be too late for me since I did not file before May 31st. I will keep you posted on some of the outcomes.
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Dee Copeland, Investment Specialist
AustinHomeNews.com, Team Dee Residential
eRealtyAlliance Commercial Real Estate
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