- Mixed-Use Development District West, Off Grand Parkway, Will Be ‘Very Similar’ to CityCentre [HBJ ($)]
- Steadfast Development Building Industrial Park in Northwest Houston [Realty News Report]
- Kuraray America First Tenant in Avera’s New Bayport Logistics Park [Realty News Report]
- Inside Under-Construction Luxury Condo Tower Arabella [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Friendswood Development Launches New Urban Community in Garden Oaks [HBJ ($)]
- Where Houston Ranks Nationally for Its Property Tax Rate [The Urban Edge]
- Denver-Based Brunch Chain Snooze Opening Next Houston Restaurant June 21 in Town & Country [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Nacho Nachos Food Truck Planning Brick and Mortar in Pearland [Houston Chronicle]
- Roka Akor Sets Opening Date of June 26 on Ground Floor of 2929 Weslayan [PaperCity Magazine; previously on Swamplot]
- NOLA Poboys Opens Second Houston Location with Webster Shop [Houston Chronicle]
- Galveston County Commissioners Court To Pay $1.7M for Private Land Around Rollover Pass [Galveston County Daily News ($); previously on Swamplot]
- California Solar Company Sunrun Makes First Foray onto Houston Rooftops [HBJ ($)]
Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Property taxes: follow the link to the to article, where there is another link to a pdf, then scroll down to Table 1a in the appendix, and there in the middle it says that Houston has the lowest homestead property tax rate in Texas. None of the figures show this (I inspected them all, so you wouldn’t have to), including the one Urban Edge displays. Still, Houston is the 16th HIGHEST in the nation. Further close scrutiny of the methodology is required (and you are all invited to continue where I left off). Bottom line: you greedy bastards are not paying enough property taxes, and we have cherry-picked data from a dense and confusing ‘study’ to prove it.
I don’t care what my “rate” is if they say “Well, we think the building value of your crappy complex went from $2m last year to $3m this year”. Uh, I don’t know what I did to improve the BUILDING value by $1m in a year.
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Then you protest it, they knock it down a bit (and you pay a % of the savings) and wait till they screw you again next year. It’s getting insane. I can’t raise rents fast enough to keep up with the increases. I wish renters would direct their fury at the assessors office but most think “We are renters. We don’t pay property tax”, not understanding that all renters pay. Even if you’re living in a box, you still pay when you shop as those taxes get baked into prices.
OMG! These fools from the Lincoln Institute obviously don’t own homes in Houston Texas. Scroll down to page 104 of their report to see what they think the property tax bill is for a median-priced Houston home. Absolutely laughable.
I’m always amazed by the Sunday NYT feature on what a million or two will buy in various markets around the country and how many of those homes have four figure property tax bills.
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The only way we’re going to get real property tax reform is to either broaden the base of the sales tax or adopt an income tax (yeah, I know….).
Hopefully the homeowners who own these types of property aren’t double taxed under Trump’s new tax plan. There are some communities in our area where taxes are close to 3%. Ouch!!!