Harris County, Texas - property tax protest data and results

A look at protest numbers for Single Family Homes

Harris County, TX, has an active property tax protest scenario. Residents are very aware of their right to protest their property assessments. With ~1.1 million single family homes (state property type code A1) , they form the largest class of properties in Harris County.

With the objective of understanding the protest scene quantitatively, we at squaredeal.tax, looked at protests for Single Family Homes from 2017 till date. Here are our findings:

Observations:

• Quantum of protests filed seem to be increasing by the year, barring a slight drop in 2018.
• The trend indicates a rising awareness among homeowners to protest.
• DIY protests i.e., homeowners filing protests themselves, also seems to be rising.
• Interestingly, they are also obtaining an increasing quantum of reductions!
• Median reduction as a percent of the assessed value stood at 5.9% overall vs. 6.4% for homeowners who protested themselves.

Visualizing this data as percentages:

• Reductions obtained, as a percentage of DIY protests filed, stood at 88% in 2020 & 2021.
• 81% protests were successful in 2022.

Let's look at the median reductions obtained:

• Median reductions have been higher for DIY protests every year!
• In 2022, median reduction obtained by single family homeowners who protested by themselves were an all time high of ~$21,858 vs $18,692 for professionally represented protests! i.e, homeowners who protested by themselves got more reductions!
• Similar pattern repeats for previous years as well.
• For 2022, average reduction obtained by homeowners who used evidence from our platform, squaredeal.tax, stood at $39,850!

Let's look at the hearings:

• More homeowners got reductions at informal hearings itself! They didn't have to go to the ARB!
• In 2021, a record 88% of homeowners who got reductions, got it at informal hearings!

In sum, homeowners who protest by themselves:

• Stand a better chance of reducing their assessed value.
• Get more dollar reduction!
• Are more likely to resolve their protests informally (either by phone or via iSettle).
• Get to keep more of their tax savings!
• This is a win-win for both homeowners and the county.

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Data for this analysis were sourced from: HCAD Public data.

Similar analysis of Harris CAD data by others:

1. Community Impact news
2. January Advisors