Texas Property Tax Tips
Archive for ‘Residential Market Values’
Inequality of Appraisal: Its Own Reason to Protest
Inequality of Appraisal is its own reason to protest your property’s taxable value because Texas appraisal districts grant Inequality on a mass basis. If you protest and qualify, it’s yours. If you don’t protest, it’s not.
Ten Percent Limitation of Taxable Increases
Many Texans think the constitutional limitation on a property’s taxable value cannot increase more than 10% in any one year. It doesn’t work quite that way. . .
A borrower’s worst nightmare: ARM increase 12/31/09
If your mortgage is an ARM that adjusts with the Cost of Funds Index, you need to know about this little publicized jump in interest rates. And even if you don’t have an ARM mortgage, this affects you also.
A borrower’s worst nightmare — a sudden and inexplicable increase in the index on which adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) are based — took place without much notice at 3pm local time on December 31.
Who(m) Y’gonna Believe: S&P Case Schiller or Your Own MLS?
S&P reports November Dallas single family home values down 0.6% in Dallas while MLS reports values up 5% for the same periods throughout North Texas. Who(m) y’gonna believe?
Are High End Homes the Next Shoe to Drop?
In 2010 the higher end of the Texas residential market may be in for significant price declines, especially since adjustable rate mortgages could rise either due to contractual resets or rising interest rates or both.
Whither Texas Home Values 1st Q 2010?
Mortgage rates — at or below 5% — are at their lowest level since the middle of the last century. But If the Fed’s program to keep rates artificially low ends March 31 and the home buyers’ tax credit ends April 30, values in the first quarter of 2010 could be artificially inflated.
Home owners who protest their valuations in 2010 need to be aware of the fleeting nature of some comparable sales statistics.
Homebuyers’ Tax Credit Effect on the Market
When the extended home buyers’ tax credit expires again in April the housing market will have to stand on its own. Some observers wonder whether it can.
DFW Apartment Market 3rd Q 2009
More than 11% of DFW rental apartment units were vacant at 12/31/2009, the highest level in twenty years. And rental rates in 2009 were down 2.6% from 2008.
The outlook does not look bright for occupancy or rental rates because
Financing: when less is more
“Mortgage interest is deductible, so reach for the stars.” But trouble with maxing out your mortgage is two fold:
Houston Homes Sales November 2009
November was the third consecutive month that Houston home sales increased year over year, up 33% from November 2008 according to Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) data, but the presence of the increase may be more significant than its size. It was attributable in part to the lingering effects of Hurricane Ike in 2008 and the impending expiration . . .
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