Houston Property Tax Calculator (2026)

HISD adopted a notable rate increase for 2025 — $0.8783 per $100, up nearly 3 cents — using a state “disaster pennies” provision after Hurricane Beryl. Harris County’s combined rate of $0.6241 includes the flood control district, hospital district, and Port of Houston Authority. Suburban areas in Fort Bend or Montgomery County typically run lower despite higher list prices.

The combined rate above assumes you’re inside Houston city limits and in the listed ISD. Cross any of those boundary lines and the math changes.

These numbers use the typical combined rate and apply the $100,000 school-district homestead exemption against the full taxable value for simplicity. Your actual bill may differ by 3–8% depending on your exact taxing units and any additional local exemptions you qualify for.

Maya bought a $510,000 bungalow in The Heights last fall. Her 2025 tax bill will run about $9,900 with homestead filed: $4,500 to HISD (after the $100k exemption), $2,650 to Harris County (combined), $2,100 to the City of Houston, and ~$500 to HCC. Without homestead she'd have paid ~$10,800.

Drop in your home’s value. The estimator uses Houston’s typical combined rate but you can tune it for your exact ISD/MUD. The $100,000 homestead exemption can be toggled.

Rates vary across Harris County based on which ISD, city, and special district your address falls inside. Suburbs often run lower than the central city, primarily because their school district rates are lower.

Harris County's MUDs (Municipal Utility Districts) layer onto suburban Houston-area homes — sometimes adding 50–80 basis points. If you're shopping in Cy-Fair, Katy, or Spring Branch, always pull the full taxing unit list before you fall in love with the list price.

The Harris Central Appraisal District is the largest appraisal district in Texas, valuing roughly 1.8 million properties annually. HCAD's scale produces both upside and friction: their online iFile system at hcad.org is genuinely good, but informal hearings sometimes queue 30+ minutes during peak May protest season.

Notices of Appraised Value go out mid-April. Protest deadline: May 15 or 30 days after notice, whichever is later. HCAD's online iFile platform handles 60-65% of residential protests, with informal phone hearings clearing another 25%. Formal ARB hearings take a couple of hours total — sign-in, wait, present, decision.

Houston-specific protest evidence that works: closed comps within Harris County (HCAD doesn't weight out-of-county comps heavily), photos of flood damage or post-storm repairs, foundation movement reports (common on Houston clay soils), and HVAC age. Houston's humid climate ages systems faster than appraisers assume — proving a 2008 HVAC isn't 15 years equivalent to a Dallas one is often a winning angle.

If you don't want to DIY, Houston has a robust property tax consultant market — O'Connor & Associates and Five Stone are among the largest. Standard contingency is 35-40% of first-year savings. For commercial property or anything above $1M assessed, expect to hire a consultant; HCAD's commercial division is sophisticated.

Houston's suburbs are full of Municipal Utility Districts (MUDs) — quasi-governmental entities that funded water, sewer, drainage, and roads in unincorporated areas. A MUD layers its own tax rate on top of county, ISD, and city taxes, typically $0.20-$0.80 per $100. That's 20-80 basis points of additional property tax on a home that's otherwise indistinguishable from a non-MUD neighbor across the street.

MUD rates decline over time as the original bond issuance is repaid. A new MUD in Katy or Cypress might charge $0.70/$100 in year one and drop to $0.20/$100 over fifteen years. A mature MUD in Sugar Land may be at $0.10-$0.15/$100. Always pull the full taxing-unit list at hcad.org before you fall in love with a list price.

Common Houston-area MUD-heavy neighborhoods include Cinco Ranch, Bridgeland, Towne Lake, Sienna Plantation, Riverstone, and Cypress Creek Lakes. Comparing two $500,000 homes — one in a low-MUD area in The Woodlands ($0.10/$100 MUD), the other in a high-MUD Cinco Ranch section ($0.65/$100 MUD) — produces a tax bill difference of $2,750 per year on identical-list-price homes.

One quirk: MUD bonds are payable only by properties inside the district. If the developer goes bankrupt mid-build or absorption stalls, remaining homeowners can see rate increases. Verify the MUD's bond rating and current debt service coverage before buying into a brand-new development.

Texas school districts have a unique provision known as "disaster pennies": after a Governor-declared disaster, an ISD can raise its tax rate without voter approval by up to $0.08 per $100 to fund recovery and operations. Houston ISD has invoked this twice in recent memory — once after Hurricane Harvey (2017) and again after Hurricane Beryl (July 2024).

The 2025 HISD rate of $0.8783 per $100 includes Beryl-related disaster pennies. The rate increased nearly 3 cents from the prior year — almost entirely the disaster-pennies adjustment. By statute, the higher rate can persist for several years before the district must seek voter approval to extend it.

Houston's storm cycle has direct property tax consequences beyond rate increases. Major storm-damaged properties get temporary "casualty" appraisal reductions if you file a Form 50-312 with HCAD within 105 days of the disaster. After Beryl, HCAD processed thousands of these. The reduction applies to the months affected, then resets.

Flood-zone reclassification by FEMA can also affect appraised value. After Harvey, large swaths of west Houston that had been Zone X were reclassified into AE. Properties with flood insurance requirements and history of flooding generally appraise 8-15% below otherwise-comparable homes outside the floodplain. HCAD recognizes this if you bring the documentation.

Scenario 1 — Young professional, $510k bungalow in The Heights. Year one with homestead filed and no MUD: about $9,900 in total tax. Breakdown: $4,500 to HISD, $2,650 to Harris County combined, $2,100 to City of Houston, $500 to HCC. Without filing homestead: about $10,800.

Scenario 2 — Family in Cinco Ranch, $625k home, KISD, high MUD ($0.65/$100). Combined effective rate runs about 2.85% before exemptions because of the MUD load. With homestead: about $14,650 annual tax. Without: $17,800. The MUD alone adds roughly $3,500/year compared to a non-MUD neighborhood at the same price.

Scenario 3 — Long-tenured owner in West University, $1.2M market value, $580k capped taxable. With homestead and 5+ years of cap effect plus over-65 if applicable: about $12,200. The cap held taxable value to less than half of market value across the 2020-2024 appreciation cycle. New buyers next door are paying $24,000+ on identical homes.

Houston ISD was placed under state appointed management by the Texas Education Agency in June 2023, replacing the elected board with a state-appointed board of managers. The takeover was driven by chronic low-performing campuses and prior state interventions.

From a property tax standpoint, the state-appointed board still adopts the annual tax rate just as the elected board did. The 2025 rate (with Beryl disaster pennies) reflects choices the appointed board made. Beyond rate-setting, the takeover doesn't change exemption rules, the appraisal cap, or your bill calculation.

Watch two things over the next two years: whether the appointed board pursues a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election to extend the disaster-pennies rate (likely after 2026), and whether the takeover ultimately reverts to a locally elected board (TEA's legal authority sunsets after a defined period). Either outcome can shift HISD rates by 5-10 cents per $100 — a real number on a real home.