Texas Property Tax Calculator (2026)

Every January 1, your county appraisal district sets a market value for your property. In May, you get a notice. You can protest. By summer, a certified value is sent to every taxing unit your property sits inside — usually five to seven of them. Each unit adopts its own rate in August or September. Your bill arrives in October, payable by the following January 31.

The math is straightforward. Each taxing unit calculates: (appraised value − that unit's exemptions) × that unit's rate. Add up all the units. That's your bill. The complexity isn't the math — it's the number of overlapping units, each with its own rate and its own exemptions.

A typical urban Texas homeowner pays into: an independent school district (the biggest line, usually 45–55% of the bill), a city, a county, a hospital district, and a community college district. Some properties also pay into a MUD (Municipal Utility District), an emergency services district, a tollway authority, or a Public Improvement District.

Combined rates below are typical for a home inside the city limits. Suburbs in the same county can be 30–60 basis points lower or higher depending on which ISD and MUDs apply. Click into each city for a full taxing-unit breakdown and worked examples.

Drop in your home's appraised value and your combined rate (or use 2.20% as a Texas-urban default). The estimator subtracts the school-district homestead exemption automatically.

• Residence homestead (school): $100,000 off taxable value for ISD taxes. Available to any owner-occupant. Saves $900–$1,000/yr at typical ISD rates.
• Optional local homestead: up to 20% additional, set by each city/county. Many Dallas-area cities offer 10–20%.
• Over-65 or disabled: additional $10,000 school exemption, plus most cities/counties layer their own. School ISD taxes also freeze at the level the year you turn 65 (the "tax ceiling").
• Disabled veteran: $5,000–$12,000 plus full exemption for 100%-rated veterans.
• Agricultural / wildlife valuation: rural land taxed on productivity value instead of market value — can drop assessed value by 90%+.

Texas tax isn't really about how much your house is worth. It's about which district lines it sits inside, when you bought it, and whether you filed a homestead. Three things, and one of them is a coin flip on a map.

Two homes appraised at $500,000, one block apart, can have property tax bills that differ by $2,000+ per year. The reasons:

• Different ISD. Plano ISD (~1.20% portion) vs. Dallas ISD (~0.99% portion) can flip 20 basis points on its own.
• MUD vs. no MUD. A home inside a Municipal Utility District can pay 50–80 extra basis points for water/sewer bonds.
• Homestead cap age. A 10-year homestead has been growing 10%/yr while the market grew 15%/yr — the taxable value lags market value significantly.
• Homestead filed or not. Sounds obvious, but title and tax assessor records frequently lose track on resale. Always reconfirm after closing.

Texas property tax protests succeed about 50-60% of the time when the homeowner brings any organized evidence. The other 40-50% fail because the homeowner either didn't bring comps or argued the wrong thing.

The Texas protest cycle, county-agnostic:

• Mid-April: Notice of Appraised Value mails. Read it. Note the appraised value, the prior-year value, and any exemptions listed.
• By May 15 (or 30 days after notice, whichever is later): File the protest. Most CADs accept online iFile. Don't miss this deadline; late filings are not permitted absent specific exceptions.
• Late May - June: Informal hearing. 10-15 minutes by phone or in person. Bring closed comparable sales (3-5 properties within a half-mile that sold below your appraised value in the prior 12 months) and photos of any condition issues.
• If unsatisfied — June through August: Formal Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hearing. Independent three-person panel. 20-30 minutes. Bring the same evidence in a one-page packet.
• After ARB: Binding arbitration ($500 deposit, refundable on win, residential under $5M) or district court litigation (rare for residential, common for commercial).

Evidence that works: closed comps within the same ISD, photos showing condition deficiencies, foundation/roof reports, recent appraisal for refinancing, and quotes from contractors for known issues. Evidence that doesn't work: emotion, references to the housing market generally, comps from outside the same school district, and "my neighbor pays less."

If you don't want to DIY, contingency-fee consultants (Ownwell, Five Stone, Resolute, O'Connor) charge 25-40% of first-year savings with no upfront cost. The math usually favors hiring help if your appraised value jumped 10%+ in a single year and you're a working professional valuing your time.

Texas property tax rates have actually fallen modestly over the past five years. School district rates compressed materially after Senate Bill 2 (2023), which raised the school homestead exemption from $40,000 to $100,000 and forced ISD rate compression through the state's formula. The five-year rate picture by metro:

• Dallas (DCAD area): Combined rate fell from ~2.45% in 2020 to ~2.22% in 2025
• Houston (HCAD area): ~2.30% (2020) to ~2.12% (2025), with Beryl disaster pennies adding 2-3 cents in 2025
• Austin (TCAD area, AISD): ~2.25% (2020) to ~2.05% (2025), with recapture floor preventing further compression
• San Antonio (BCAD area, SAISD): ~2.40% (2020) to ~2.27% (2025)
• Fort Worth (TAD area, FWISD): ~2.50% (2020) to ~2.24% (2025)

Despite rate cuts, the typical Texas homeowner's actual bill rose 15-30% over the same period because appraised values rose faster than rates fell. The 10% homestead cap moderates this for tenured owners. New buyers absorbed the full delta.

Looking forward, expect further modest rate compression through 2027 as SB 2's mechanisms continue working, offset by ongoing appraised-value growth in growing metros. The structural floor on rates is the school recapture obligation, which forces "property-wealthy" districts like AISD and HISD to maintain rates sufficient to fund both local operations and state redistribution.

• Not filing homestead exemption. The single most common and costly mistake. Free, ten minutes, $1,000-$2,500/year savings. File through your county appraisal district immediately after closing.
• Letting homestead "fall off" after refinance. Some refinances or title transfers can inadvertently remove homestead status. Verify on your next May notice that homestead is still listed.
• Skipping the protest year-one as a new buyer. First-year purchases often see significant reappraisal jumps. The closing price establishes a comp; bring it.
• Missing local optional exemptions. Dallas County, City of Austin, and others offer additional 10-20% homestead exemptions on top of the state $100,000. Most homeowners don't know to file separately.
• Not claiming over-65 freeze. File immediately on your 65th birthday year. The school tax ceiling that locks in is among the most valuable senior benefits in Texas.
• Buying into a high-MUD area without modeling the tax impact. Suburban Houston and Austin developments can carry 50-80 basis points of MUD tax. List price doesn't tell you the carry cost.
• Paying property tax loans instead of installment agreements. If you fall behind, the county will let you pay in installments at no penalty. Property tax loans at 12-18% APR are a last resort, not a first option.

Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Washington, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Alaska have no state income tax. They fund state government through different mixes of sales tax, severance taxes, tourism, and property tax. Texas leans heavier on property tax than peers:

• Texas: Effective property tax rate ~1.6%-2.3%, sales tax 6.25%-8.25%, no state income tax
• Florida: Effective property tax ~0.9%-1.2%, sales tax 6%-7.5%, no state income tax, but homestead "Save Our Homes" 3% cap is more generous
• Tennessee: Effective property tax ~0.7%, sales tax 7%-9.75% (highest combined sales rate in US), no state income tax
• Washington: Effective property tax ~0.9%, sales tax 6.5%-10.4%, plus B&O tax on businesses
• Nevada: Effective property tax ~0.6%, sales tax 6.85%-8.375%, gaming tax revenue is significant

The Texas property tax structure feels heavier than peer no-income-tax states because school finance is local rather than state-funded as it is in some states. Combined state-and-local tax burden in Texas is roughly average among the 50 states despite the absence of income tax. It's a different distribution, not a uniformly lower total.

For a relocator from a high-income-tax state (California, New York, New Jersey), the Texas math usually wins because state income tax savings exceed the property tax differential. For a relocator from another no-income-tax state, the comparison is closer and depends on lifestyle (do you buy a home, rent, consume sales-taxed goods, etc.).