Property Tax Loophole in Texas Housing Market Favors Rich

Doug Miller of KHOU TV has the following to say about a certain issue within the Texas housing market:

With a booming housing market comes booming prices and booming property taxes. For a lot of the people buying houses, however, there’s also a booming loophole.

Texans have to pay the government property taxes based on the value of our homes.

But they do not have to tell the government how much they paid for these homes at the outset of the Texas mortgage process. Some of the people who run the tax offices think that needs to change.

“If you want to get the property tax system straight, then use the value that everybody knows, which is the value of the home sale,” Paul Bettencourt, Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector, said.

A handful home buyers volunteer their sale prices, but for those who don’t, appraisers estimate. Often, they underestimate.

In a way, appraisers say, the current system discriminates against middle-income homeowners because in thise neighborhood houses sell fairly often. Properties are similar, with the prices listed in the Multiple Listing Service and even in the Sunday paper.

Therefore, it’s fairly easy for an appraiser to estimate the sale price of a home.

However, in high-income neighborhoods such as River Oaks, it’s a different story. These are not suburban tract houses. Property appraisers say it is almost impossible for them to estimate the value and the sales price of a unique mansion.

“If we’ve got it appraised for $2.5 million and it sold for $7 million, then the owner of that property is getting a huge break in comparison to the owner of a $200,000 house or a $50,000 house that we’ve tagged right on the money, because it’s easy for us to come up with what that stuff is selling for,” Jim Robinson, Harris County Appraisal District.

For years, taxing authorities have wanted state lawmakers to require price disclosure for all real estate transactions. They will try again in the legislature this year.

“I’m optimistic that we’ll get that worked out this time. I think it’ll be part of the recommendations that the governor’s property tax appraisal reform commission comes out with,” said State Sen. Tommy Williams, R - The Woodlands.

But the idea faces powerful opposition.

Commercial property owners argue that the value of, say, a skyscraper isn’t in its sales price, but in the money it generates from its tenants.

Realtors don’t like this idea, either.

“It’s my opinion that the taxing authorities get a deep enough cut into us in every different aspect of our lives. And it is one of the few things that we still have that is private, and that is the transaction between a buyer and a seller,” said realtor Carlos Garcia II.

But if some of the people who tax property have their way, they’ll know what individuals paid after the “For Sale” signs come down and home mortgage loans have been approved.