In 2020, Houston remains in the list of US’s most affordable large cities. This could be because both job and population growth remains healthy. This is great news for many since affordability remains to be a major contributor to any family’s largest expenditure.

Circumstances like these draw huge crowds to one of the largest city of US. As like with any other person, most people like to own the property they are utilizing. If you are one of those people then by now you must have noticed the various changes in the property tax laws and legislation. This change is largely due to the 86^th legislature.

For whatever reason, property taxes in Houston are changing or modifying and that too in an impactful way, we are going to break down. In this article, you will learn the basics of property tax, what you can expect from or because of it, the tax rate of Houston and how you can calculate your property tax.

What Is Property Tax?

When we start from the basics, naturally, the definition of the term we are going to discuss repeatedly comes to mind. At its core, it is a tax on the property you own, including but not limited to real estate. For example; Houston’s average property tax rate is 1.89% on a home of median value $149,000. Whatever amount you are going to pay depends on property appraisals.

What You Can Expect?

• If you are relocating to Houston from other states you can expect your property tax to be higher then what you are used to
• You can expect a decrease in your local tax bill and your total annual state bill.
• What you can expect to remain constant is the privilege of Texas zero residential real estate transfer fee.
• As mentioned before the job growth is healthy in almost all areas of Houston, which is why you can expect the multifamily sector to stay strong. This means you can also expect developmental growth.
• However, with the population growth also retaining their healthy status you can also expect the demand to outpace the supply. This means suburban development.

The Property Tax Rate for Houston

This tax rate is the 2019 proposed property rate for Houston. The governing body of Houston’s proposes a $0.56920 on every $100 valuation. Here is an overview:

Preceding year’s tax rate	$0.588310	Per $100 valuation
Proposed tax rate	$0.567920	Per $100 valuation
Effective tax rate	$0.587995	Per $100 valuation

As mentioned before, Houston is going to go into development especially in suburb areas where development is lacking. This along with many other factors causes the effective tax rate to be of this amount. This effective tax rate is essential to raise the property tax revenue of the same amount from the same properties in both tax years of 2018 and 2019.

How to Calculate Your Property Tax Rate

Usually, you can calculate or measure the property taxes by subtracting the applicable homestead, age 65+ and any exemptions like the disability exemption from the assessed value of the property. The law of the state defines the assessed value of any real property to be the market value of a property on the first day of this tax year i.e. January 1^st.

However, you can also calculate your property tax by using any of the above-mentioned rates and the following formula: