Hands up who's happy with their Tax Appraisal value?

Booooo!

I agree with Ashley. Booooooooo!

As most taxing authorities claimed that property values were flat to slightly lower across the city this year, this reeks of a city/county/and school district desperate for property tax revenue,

I'd call a 12 % bounce "flat", I guess...maybe its the lack of walkable destinations, trash blowing around our parks, and big, open fields of nothing that qualifies us "prime real estate".

I'd like to think our appraisal district is truly independent from our taxing authorities. :)

Boooo indeed

I plan to submit a request to protest my appraisal. The form is on the back of your appraisal form and must be submitted by May 31st.

I have protested the last two years while living in Mueller and they were lowered both times. The TCAD office is near 183 & Cameron. They assigned me a time to arrive and I was there for approx one hour each time. It was worth the investment of my time. Good Luck!

Did you need comparable home sales or other data to protest?

The only thing that I brought was my settlement statement from the purchase of the home. There are many Mueller resident who challenged it and were much better prepared than me. Hopefully they'll provide some insight as well.

Once again, TCAD has assessed my home's value at a ridiculous rate (this time a 30% increase), so once again, I will be engaging in the summertime ritual of kicking a little TCAD butt. The first year, they reduced the 20% increase in appraised value to the purchase price, consistent with their normal practice. Last year, after an even higher appraisal, TCAD declined to budge at the informal "hearing," but then mostly lost at the ARB review, based mainly on the fact that all their comps were DW, and my house was Meritage, and no builder had seen a dramatic increase in prices from day 1 (I kept copies of some 2008 price lists).

Sadly, every year, I meet more and more people who have decided against protesting, and I'm not sure why. I think some people like the idea of believing that their homes have gone up in value 35-40% in 2-3 years, but I just don't think the sales data bear that out (they didn't last year, at least, from the limited data I've seen). TCAD knows that it's easy to over-assess home values in a new neighborhood like ours where there is less certainty about appropriate prices then there is in established neighborhoods. Mueller is a target, and when people don't protest, we all pay the price.

Keep up the fight.

DW's current prices for garden homes seem to be about what I recall they were charging in 2008 for homes of similar size, and may even be lower (on a $/sq ft basis) for new the larger plans:

http://www.davidweekleyhomes.com/Site/Community.aspx?UID=05246479-24D0-426C-88C2-7C65D7E4360B&CMP=1085

I need to find that 2008 brochure...