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Austin Tea Party

The Royal Estimate

The county's number, and where it comes from.

Every spring the appraisal district sends you a value for your house. It comes from a computer, a neighborhood average, and the sales it managed to find. Nobody asked you. It stands unless somebody protests it. We call it the Royal Estimate.

Check my houseLess than 2 minutes. No credit card to sign up.
Revere reading the Royal Estimate, a paper dragon made of spreadsheet printout

The calendar

Valued in January. Told in April. Protest by May 15.

  1. Jan 1Valued as of

    The county values your house as of January 1. Whatever it decides it was worth that day is the number for the whole year.

  2. AprilThe Notice

    You find out in April. The law says by April 1 for a homestead, or as soon after as the district can manage, and only if your value went up, the property is new, or it changed hands. Some districts mail everyone anyway.

  3. May 15Protest deadline

    May 15, or 30 days after your Notice arrives, whichever is later. If nobody protests by then, the county's number usually stands for the year.

Property tax bills are due January 31, 2027

104 daysLower next year's bill

How the number is made

Five inputs. One estimate. No visit.

Mass appraisal is how Texas districts value whole neighborhoods at once. It is a legal estimate, not a review of your property.

  1. 01

    County records

    Ownership, account history, prior values, exemptions, and the facts already attached to the parcel.

  2. 02

    Imagery

    Aerial and street-level views that let the district model whole neighborhoods at once, without visiting any of them.

  3. 03

    Square footage and class

    The size, quality class, age, and improvement details the district has on file. Often years old.

  4. 04

    The sales it can find

    Texas is a non-disclosure state, so the district does not see every sale. It works from listing data it buys, surveys it mails to buyers, and deeds that carry no price.

  5. 05

    The model

    A mass-appraisal formula that turns those inputs into one number for your house. Nobody looked at your house to produce it.

Non-disclosure

The county can't see every sale.

Texas is a non-disclosure state. When a house sells, the price is not public record, and nobody is required to tell the appraisal district what it sold for.

So the district builds its number from the sales it can get: listing data it buys, surveys it mails to buyers hoping for a reply, and deeds that show a transfer but no price. A model fills in the gaps.

The gaps are where your number goes wrong. A protest is where the facts about your house get in front of the people who set it.

The data point

Most homes never answer.

Four in five Texas homes let the county's number stand last year. Of the ones that fought, seven in ten brought a representative.

Sources: Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, 2024 Appraisal District Operations Survey (Q9.1.1, Q9.3); U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year, tables B25024 and B25003.

Twenty seconds

Your deadline is May 15. See what the county has you at.

Less than 2 minutes. No credit card to sign up.