COMMENT OF THE DAY: MINING THE TAX RECORDS “Here’s my method to determine medium-term appreciation rates: 1. Look up a given house in HCAD.org. Make note of the current year’s appraised value. 2. Click the View link for the Harris County Tax Records. 3. Click the “View 15 year tax/value history” link on the following page. 4. On the graph on the following page, hover your mouse over the year farthest back (e.g. 1993). 5. Find the percentage difference between the appraised value from the current year and the appraised value from the year farthest back, and there’s your medium-term appreciation rate. It’s a quick and dirty method, but it really opened my eyes to the areas that are the best investments from a financial standpoint.” [Alan, commenting on Baby Needs a New Pair of Schools]