TCAD truncated
For several years, the free portion of the on-line TCAD database has shown past years’ appraisal figures (TCAD is the Travis Central Appraisal District). This was very helpful to those protesting appraised values. Late last week, the front end of the database changed and so did the information presented. At this time, there’s information for one year only, now 2004 and, no doubt, soon to be 2005. The missing information will still be available, but will join that which must be paid for. The appraisal bomb arrived in mailboxes on our street yesterday. All will be received no later than May 15.
UPDATE: The figures for the 2005 tax year are now up. Some of the information from prior years has been restored, back to 2000.
Man, that’s irritating. I can’t remember what last year’s appraisal was; I can’t find last year’s form; so I don’t know how much extra tax I need to prepare for. Argh.
For your homestead, just bet on it to be 10% higher, no more and no less. In other words, it’s pretty evident that the so-called “cap” has become a floor. It’ll be interesting to see what the taxing entities will do about the rates. If the local daily is to be believed, homesteads citywide didn’t appreciate that much in value, at least according to TCAD’s assigned values.
I’ve had good experience with TCAD in the past.
1. The condo (Clarksville) I bought in 1997 rose from 77K to about 92K the next year (I paid 96K, so 92K was defensible)
2. The condo rose a couple of times, one more big one when we refinanced (cash-out), again to roughly what we had it appraised at privately. (I don’t know if they saw the new loan or just got the new value from another source).
3. The condo stayed the same this year.
4. The house (NUNA) I bought in 2003 rose from the 220ish level to 270s (less than we paid).
5. The house stayed the same this year.
I don’t buy the 10% conspiracy theory, in other words. On both of my central-city properties, most of the jumps occurred as a result of real market signals (and only the condo went up at all on another occasion so far – and that rise was fairly small).
whoops, hit post too quick.
summary: (obviously I found my old valuation info ;+) – in our case, the rises occurred when TCAD found new information, and in all cases it was accurate (the 220ish appraisal on the house pre-sale-to-us didn’t include a massive interior cleanup which made it worth a lot more to us than similar properties; and all three major jumps in appraisals on our properties matched what we know the market value was, or at least in the refi case, what we claimed it to be).
There’s no 10% conspiracy theory; it’s the law. If, on the TCAD site, under the “Value Information” heading, the “Assessed Value” and the “Total Value” are the same, then the 10% increase doesn’t come into play. If there is a difference, the capped “Assessed Value” will rise every year by 10% until it comes within 10% of the “Total Value,” at which time it will rise enough to equal the “Total Value,” assuming that the “Total Value” has remained steady. This applies only to homesteads.
Tex. Tax Code ch. 23, subch. A,
They dropped the appraisal history, but seem to have added slightly more detailed information about the house and property. There was a story in The Statesman this past weekend as well.
(Standard Statesman link disclaimer: They only keep the last 7 days available for free and then they move to the paid archive. You can go here to get around this limit if you’ve got an APL card.)
You can find the appraisal history at: http://www.housealmanac.com/