Texas property tax answers · Updated July 2026
Why is my Texas property tax bill so high?
The short answer
Your October bill is assessed value times the combined rate of your taxing units, and the only input you can fight is the assessed value, which was set in April. Common causes of a painful bill: an assessment above what comparable homes carry, a missing homestead exemption (worth a 20%+ cut in many districts), an expired cap after a purchase, or rate increases. If your homestead is 25%+ over-assessed, you can still correct THIS bill until January 31.
The four usual suspects
- Over-assessment. The appraisal district values whole neighborhoods with mass models; if yours came in above what comparable homes carry, you pay the difference every year until someone protests it. This is the most common and most fixable cause.
- A missing homestead exemption. Worth a mandatory $100,000 off school-district value plus optional local percentages. If you bought recently, confirm it transferred, a vanished exemption quietly adds thousands.
- The cap reset. The 10% homestead appraisal cap resets when a home sells. If you bought in the last two years, your assessed value may have jumped to full market in one step, that's legal, but the underlying market value is still protestable.
- Rates. School, county, city, MUD, ESD rates stack. You can't protest a rate, but you can show up when they're adopted, and you can make sure the value they multiply against is right.
What you can still do about THIS bill
The protest window for 2026 closed May 15, but two corrections stay open until taxes go delinquent on February 1: a Section 25.25(d) motion if your homestead is assessed 25%+ over market (10% penalty, usually still strongly worth it), and Section 25.25(c) for factual errors on your record card, wrong square footage, missing exemptions, structures that don't exist, up to four years back, no penalty.
The free check reads your parcel from the county roll and shows your gap against comparable homes in 30 seconds, that tells you immediately whether you have a 25.25(d) case now or a standard protest case for April. Either way you'll know why the bill is what it is, which beats guessing.
See exactly why your bill is what it is
Search your address, free. We show your assessed value against comparable homes from your county's own roll. If you're 25%+ over on a homestead, the $49 kit generates your correction motion, still filable for this bill. Otherwise the $79/yr membership queues your 2027 protest so the next bill is the one that drops.
Check my address · FreeFlat fees, no contingency, you keep 100% of any reduction.