Used to be when a protesting homeowner testified that market conditions were terrible Appraisal Review Board members’ eyes would glaze over as if Chicken Little were testifying, “The sky is falling”.  Board members wanted only comparable sales; that was their grail.

No longer.  Now the Property Tax Code specifies  “in determining the value of a residential homestead the chief appraiser may not exclude from consideration the value of of other residential property in the same neighborhood because

• it was sold at foreclosure within three years of the preceding tax year, or
• the market value has declined because of the declining economy.”

With more than 11 million homeowners — nearly a fourth of all mortgagees — underwater nationwide and one in ten more than 25% under — should a Texas homeowner use that data to support to a protest?

Depends where you live.

• In Harris County the December median home sale price was $152,550, up 5.2% from the year earlier period and the eighth consecutive monthly increase in median price.
• In DFW, median sale prices for homes sold through MLS in all of 2009 were flat compared to 2008.
• Foreclosures in North Texas were down 12%, from 21,174 in 2008 to 19,102 in 2009, and the average loan balance was $130,000.  Hardest hit were neighborhoods in Grand Prairie, Southeast Dallas, McKinney, DeSoto and Frisco.

For a complete report on foreclosures in Texas copy and paste this link into your browser window:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/classifieds/news/homecenter/realestate/stories/DN-foreclosures_26bus.ART.State.Edition1.3ceba84.html

For a report of price changes by MLS sectors in DFW copy and past this link:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/classifieds/news/homecenter/realestate/stories/DN-quarterlyhomesales_22bus.ART.State.Edition1.3cfb24c.html

If you’re in one of the sectors that dropped 10% or more, use it to bolster your case at the Appraisal Review Board.  At Property Tax Protest, that’s what we do.

But don’t rely only on market factors.  Without comparable sales appropriately adjusted to your property, you’ll be toast and might as well stay home.