45 percent of the 860,000 single-family-home appraisals completed by HCAD so far this year show a lower market value than last year; 39 percent are the same, and 16 percent have gone up. “‘Appraisal value is down about 2.5 percent (overall),’ said Assistant Chief Appraiser Gus Griscom of the completed figures. . . . Homes valued at $500,000 or more received the highest percentage of actual value increases. Homes valued at $250,000 or less were given the highest percentage of value reductions. Overall, of the statements currently being mailed, homes valued at more than $500,000 saw their market values increase on the average anywhere from 5.17 percent at the lower end to 5.81 percent for homes valued at $1 million or more. The above-$500,000 valuation group accounts for a little more than 3 percent of the appraisals being mailed.” [River Oaks Examiner]
Read more about: HCAD, Houston Data, Price Trends, Property Taxes
March 21, 2008 – 12:27 pm
Who came up with the name “iSettle” for HCAD’s new online settlement system for property-tax-assessment protests? It’s a name that appears crafted to attract the most docile of protesting taxpayers — which should work out well for the appraisal district: If you’re one of those more contentious homeowners who won’t settle for iSettle’s email offer in response to your protest, HCAD staff won’t even bother scheduling an informal meeting for you with an HCAD appraiser. You go straight to a formal hearing!
If you file your protest on line using iFile and indicate a realistic opinion of value, your account may be selected for an on-line settlement offer. The appraisal district reviews the protest and its own evidence, as well as trends in reductions in surrounding properties. If your suggested value falls within those parameters, a settlement offer will be sent to you at the email address you give when you file. Normally, you will have 10 days in which to log on to the iFile website and accept the offer. If you accept the offer, you won’t need to attend any appointments. The records will be changed and you will receive confirmations via email and regular mail. If you do not accept or do not respond, your account will be scheduled for a formal hearing . . . with the appraisal review board.
If you aren’t otherwise inclined to protest your home’s appraisal in person or hire a firm to do it for you, iSettle is probably worth trying. But personable homeowners with negotiating skills who’ve been able to finagle appraisal reductions in the informal meetings may want to avoid it.
And iSettle won’t be available to everyone anyway:
The iSettle process will be available only to individual homeowners. Most neighborhoods are eligible, but a few neighborhoods are not because of the complexity of the market in those neighborhoods. If you aren’t eligible, we’ll notify you.
Heights residents: This means you.
Read more about: HCAD, Online Resources, Property-Tax Protests, Taxes
Harris County homeowners might worry that the nationwide downturn in the real-estate market will ultimately affect the prices they can get for their homes, but HCAD says there’s no problem: Things are looking up! To prove it, the agency has raised property-tax assessments an average of seven percent this year. How’s that for a vote of confidence?
Sounds even more flattering than the Chronicle, which comes off sounding insufficiently boosterish. Their survey last week declared that home prices in 2006 had risen an average of only 4.3 percent in the greater Houston area.
Read more about: HCAD, Housing Prices
