Texas home values are cooling. Texas property tax assessments are not. Three years of appraisal district data from 10 of the state's largest residential counties (tax years 2024, 2025, and 2026) show that in nearly every major Texas metro, the typical homeowner's market value (what the appraiser thinks the home would sell for) flattened or fell in 2026, while their assessed value (the number that drives their property tax bill) kept climbing.
That gap between what the market supports and what homeowners are being taxed on is the textbook setup for a successful Texas property tax protest. Below, we break down what the numbers say across Bexar, Dallas, Denton, El Paso, Fort Bend, Harris, Hays, Montgomery, Tarrant, and Travis counties, and what it means for the typical Texas homeowner in 2026.
What's Happening Across Texas
Every year, your county appraisal district decides what your home is worth on paper. They put two numbers on it. The first is market value, which is what the appraiser thought the home would sell for at the time of appraisal.
The second is assessed value, which is the number your property tax bill is actually based on. Those two numbers are not always the same, and the gap between them is where homeowners either save money or overpay on property taxes.
Texas gives owner-occupants a powerful safety net called the homestead exemption. If your home is your primary residence and you have filed for it, state law caps how fast your assessed value can grow at 10% per year, no matter what the market does.
Properties without a homestead exemption (rentals, investment homes, second homes, vacant lots) get no such cap.
This report compares both groups (homesteaded and non-homesteaded) across three years of data (2024, 2025, and 2026).
The big-picture pattern is consistent:
Appraisal districts have continued to markup non-homesteaded properties at well above the rate of homesteaded ones, the homestead cap is doing exactly what it was designed to do, and in several counties, the typical homeowner is now being assessed at a higher value than the market itself supports. That is the fact pattern behind a successful protest.
Quick Key
Plain-English definitions for the terms used throughout this report.
Market Value (MV): The county appraiser's estimate of what your home would sell for. It does not directly set your tax bill, but it is the starting point for the assessed value.
Assessed Value (AV): The number the county uses to calculate your property tax. The lower this is, the lower your bill.
(General) Homestead Exemption: A free, one-time filing that tells the county your home is your primary residence. Once it is on file, Texas law caps your assessed-value increase at 10% per year, no matter how much the market goes up. As of November 2025, homesteaded properties also received $140,000 off their market value.
Homesteaded Property: A primary residence with a homestead exemption on file. Protected by the 10% cap and receives the $140,000 market value.
Non-Homesteaded Property: Everything else, including rentals, investment homes, second homes, and vacant lots. No cap protection.
Parcel: A single property record at the county appraisal district. Each home is one parcel.
YoY (Year-over-Year) Change: The percentage change from one tax year to the next, averaged across all matched residential parcels.
A note on outliers: When a county's average for "all properties" looks unusually high in a single year (such as a triple-digit jump), it is almost always a math artifact, the result of a small group of brand-new or recently reclassified parcels with very low prior-year base values pulling the average up.
Where this happens, it is flagged in the text, and the homesteaded average is treated as the more reliable read for a typical homeowner.
DFW Area
Dallas, Tarrant, and Denton tell three different stories under one metro umbrella. Dallas saw steady appreciation with a quietly shrinking owner-occupant base.
Tarrant's residential roll actually contracted in the most recent year, driven by a sharp drop in non-homesteaded parcels.
Denton kept growing on every dimension and is the only county in this report where total, homesteaded, and non-homesteaded parcel counts all rose.
Dallas County: Steady Appreciation, Quietly Shrinking Owner-Occupant Base
The 10% homestead cap is doing its job, and the gap between protected and unprotected homes keeps widening.
Dallas County tells two stories at once. Home values are climbing, but the typical owner-occupant is paying tax on a much smaller increase than the average rental or investment property. That gap is the homestead cap working as designed, and it has grown wider every year of the three-year window.
How values moved (averages, year over year):
Period | Avg AV change (all) | Avg AV change (homesteaded) | Avg MV change (all) | Avg MV change (homesteaded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 → 2024 | +15.4% | +10.9% | +20.6% | +13.8% |
2024 → 2025 | +12.9% | +9.1% | +8.8% | +2.7% |
2025 → 2026 | +16.3% | +6.6% | +13.9% | +1.7% |
After 2024, owner-occupant market values went nearly flat while the broader pool kept appreciating.
How the residential roll changed:
Total residential parcels: +0.92% over three years (666,993 to 673,170).
Homesteaded parcels: -1.01% (413,849 to 409,659).
Non-homesteaded parcels: +4.06% (253,144 to 263,511).
Dallas and Harris are the only counties in this report where the homesteaded base shrank.
The takeaway for Dallas:
Appreciation in the headline numbers is real, but most of it is concentrated outside the typical owner-occupied home. Homesteaded properties saw their assessed values keep climbing even as their underlying market values barely moved in 2025 and 2026.
What This Means for Dallas Homeowners
If you live in your home but have not filed a homestead exemption, you are being taxed on the unprotected number. The exemption is free; one form, filed once every five years.
If your assessed value rose while your market value held flat or fell, that gap is the textbook setup for a protest.
Tarrant County: First Contraction in the Residential Roll, and Non-Homesteaded Parcels Bore the Brunt
Owner-occupants kept gaining ground while non-homesteaded parcel counts fell sharply.
Tarrant County's most striking three-year story is in the parcel counts. The total residential roll grew slightly between 2024 and 2025, then contracted sharply in the most recent year.
Inside that decline, the homesteaded base actually grew, meaning the contraction came almost entirely from non-homesteaded properties.
How the residential roll changed:
Total residential parcels: +1.35% (2024 to 2025), then -3.30% (2025 to 2026), for a net -1.95% (660,458 to 638,642).
Homesteaded parcels: +0.89% then +2.87%, for a net +3.76% three-year gain.
Non-homesteaded parcels: -12.34% in 2026 (267,951 to 234,884), or -10.31% across three years.
That mix shift toward owner-occupied housing is the strongest in any DFW county.
How values moved (homesteaded series; the cleaner read):
Homesteaded AV: +10.3%, +3.2%, +7.9%.
Homesteaded MV: +2.1%, -3.1%, +0.5%.
In 2024-2025, assessments still climbed while market values fell. That is a textbook protest setup.
Note, the county-wide "all properties" MV figure for 2024 (+111%) is anomalously high and is treated as a base-year math artifact, not a real market signal.
Period | Avg AV change (all) | Avg AV change (homesteaded) | Avg MV change (all) | Avg MV change (homesteaded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 → 2024 | +12.8% | +10.3% | +111.0%* | +2.1% |
2024 → 2025 | +25.7% | +3.2% | +10.0% | -3.1% |
2025 → 2026 | +38.0% | +7.9% | +8.2% | +0.5% |
* The 2024 county-wide MV figure is anomalously high, likely reflecting base-year math from new-build or recently reclassified parcels from land to single-family residential properties. The homesteaded series is the more representative read on a typical Tarrant homeowner.
The combined message is mixed:
Homesteaded owners are seeing modest, controlled assessment growth, but the broader residential roll lost more than 21,000 parcels in a single year. Whether that reflects reclassifications, demolitions, or sales activity, it materially reshapes the county's residential base.
What This Means for Tarrant Homeowners
If your homesteaded assessment rose 8% in 2025-2026 while your market value barely moved, that gap is exactly the kind of evidence a protest is built on.
Denton County: The Metro's Residential Growth Engine, Across the Board
The only county in this report where total, homesteaded, and non-homesteaded parcels all grew.
Denton is the demographic outlier of the 10 counties in this report. It is the only one in which every category of residential parcels grew over three years.
Population growth has not, however, translated into rising market values for the typical owner-occupant; those numbers have been essentially flat.
How the residential roll changed:
Total residential parcels: +9.43% (298,021 to 326,788).
Homesteaded parcels: +11.47% (187,286 to 209,217).
Non-homesteaded parcels: +6.45% (110,735 to 117,571).
Every other county in this report contracted in at least one of those three categories.
How values moved (homesteaded series; the trustworthy read):
Homesteaded AV: +9.1%, +5.0%, +1.0%. Decelerating sharply but always positive.
Homesteaded MV: -0.8%, +0.4%, -0.6%. Effectively flat for three straight years.
Owner-occupant Denton homes have not appreciated meaningfully since 2024, even as the county added more than 28,000 residential parcels.
Why the "all properties" averages are excluded from headline takeaways:
Denton's county-wide all-properties AV averages for 2024, 2025, and 2026 (+100.6%, +469.0%, +159.4%) are all base-year math artifacts. They’re likely driven by new construction and parcels with very low prior-year base values, not by typical home appreciation.
Period | Avg AV change (all) | Avg AV change (homesteaded) | Avg MV change (all) | Avg MV change (homesteaded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 → 2024 | (see note)* | +9.1% | (see note)* | -0.8% |
2024 → 2025 | (see note)* | +5.0% | (see note)* | +0.4% |
2025 → 2026 | (see note)* | +1.0% | (see note)* | -0.6% |
*Note: Denton's county-wide "all properties" averages are inflated by base-year math from new builds and recently reclassified parcels. In this case, the homesteaded figures are the more reliable read.
What This Means for Denton Homeowners
If you bought into Denton during the post-pandemic run-up and your homesteaded assessment kept rising while your market value sat flat, that gap is grounds for a protest.
Houston Area
Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery diverged sharply in 2025-2026.
Harris's residential roll lost roughly 75,000 parcels in a single year.
Fort Bend kept growing at a steady, owner-occupant-led pace.
Montgomery's homesteaded base added more than 20,000 parcels over three years (the largest absolute homesteaded gain in the metro) while non-homesteaded parcel counts fell.
Harris County: Assessed Values are Still Lagging Slightly Behind a Cooling Market
Values held up. The roll did not.
Harris County's headline number is the parcel count, not the values. The total residential roll grew slightly from 2024 to 2025, then dropped sharply from 2025 to 2026, a net loss of nearly 75,000 parcels in a single year. The values themselves moved at the steadiest pace of any county in this report.
How the residential roll changed:
Total residential parcels: 1,262,511 to 1,274,122 to 1,199,418, for a three-year net of -4.94%.
Homesteaded parcels: -2.11% in 2025-2026 alone.
Non-homesteaded parcels: -13.34% in 2025-2026 alone, or -12.36% across three years.
That magnitude likely reflects reclassifications, demolitions, or HCAD's evolving parcel definitions in addition to genuine market activity.
Important caveat: Harris CAD releases its certified roll in batches across multiple cycles. A substantial share of the 2026 parcel drop is most likely "unnoticed" parcels (parcels with $0 market values that have not yet been finalized for the year), rather than properties that genuinely left the residential roll.
The values series (MV and AV) is not affected by this; only the parcel counts should be read with caution.
How values moved (averages, year over year):
Period | Avg AV change (all) | Avg AV change (homesteaded) | Avg MV change (all) | Avg MV change (homesteaded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 → 2024 | +12.2% | +8.1% | +7.2% | +0.2% |
2024 → 2025 | +10.5% | +5.6% | +8.3% | +1.7% |
2025 → 2026 | +8.6% | +3.6% | +7.4% | +2.5% |
AV, all residential properties: +12.2%, +10.5%, +8.6%. Decelerating each year.
AV, homesteaded only: +8.1%, +5.6%, +3.6%. Well below the 10% cap and slowing meaningfully.
MV, all residential properties: +7.2%, +8.3%, +7.4%. A remarkably even cadence.
MV, homesteaded only: +0.2%, +1.7%, +2.5%. Owner-occupant market values barely moved.
Two patterns separate Harris from the rest of the metro.
First, the gap between all properties and homesteaded assessment growth widened each year, from 4.1 percentage points in 2024 to 5.0 in 2026. That tells you non-homesteaded inventory continued to absorb above-average increases.
Second, total residential parcel growth flipped from a small positive in 2025 to the steepest single-year decline in this report in 2026. Whatever the cause, it materially reshapes the denominators behind every county-wide average.
What This Means for Harris Homeowners
Harris is the rare county where assessment growth has decelerated faster than market growth. HCAD has been reining in the post-pandemic catch-up.
That does not eliminate protest opportunities; it concentrates them. If your specific parcel saw a bigger assessment increase than the county-wide pace, you are an outlier, or if your property’s assessed value didn’t decrease enough.
Fort Bend County: The Metro's Most Owner-Occupant-Led Growth Story
Homesteaded parcels grew faster than the total, a quiet sign of who is moving in.
Fort Bend County is a cleaner version of the Houston metro pattern: steady appreciation, controlled homestead assessment growth, and a parcel mix tilting toward owner-occupants.
When homesteaded parcels grow faster than the total, that is the math of new owner-occupants moving in faster than rentals or second homes.
How the residential roll changed:
Total residential parcels: +4.00% (298,962 to 311,040).
Homesteaded parcels: +6.56% (194,389 to 207,307); 12,918 net new owner-occupants in three years.
Non-homesteaded parcels: -0.79%. Essentially flat with a slight decline.
The share of Fort Bend's residential base that is owner-occupied is now meaningfully higher than it was in 2024.
How values moved (homesteaded series; the trustworthy read):
Period | Avg AV change (all) | Avg AV change (homesteaded) | Avg MV change (all) | Avg MV change (homesteaded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 → 2024 | +17.5% | -0.2% | +69.9%* | +9.6% |
2024 → 2025 | +16.3% | +6.1% | +10.3% | +0.2% |
2025 → 2026 | +11.7% | +2.3% | +12.7% | +0.3% |
Homesteaded AV: -0.2%, +6.1%, +2.3%. Well within the 10% cap and decelerating in 2026.
Homesteaded MV: +9.6%, +0.2%, +0.3%. Essentially flat after 2024.
All-properties AV: +17.5%, +16.3%, +11.7%. Decelerating, but still well above the homesteaded series.
All-properties MV for 2024 (+69.9%) is anomalously high and is treated as a base-year math artifact.
* The 2024 county-wide MV figure is anomalously high, likely a base-year math artifact. Homesteaded MV is the more representative read.
The structural read is that FBCAD continues to markup non-homesteaded inventory at a much faster pace than owner-occupied homes. That gap is what the homestead cap exists to create, but it also means homeowners who have not filed homestead exemptions are paying tax on the unprotected number.
What This Means for Fort Bend Homeowners
Fort Bend's homesteaded market values have been roughly flat since 2024, while assessments still climbed in 2025 and 2026. That is the textbook protest setup.
Montgomery County: A Homestead Magnet with a Cooling Market
Owner-occupant parcels grew +13% in three years, the biggest homesteaded gain in the Houston metro.
Montgomery County added owner-occupants faster than any other county in the Houston metro. More than 100% of the county's net residential growth came from new homesteaders, while the rental and second-home base actually contracted.
Montgomery is now the only county in this report where homesteaded and non-homesteaded parcel counts are nearly equal.
How the residential roll changed:
Total residential parcels: +5.03% over three years.
Homesteaded parcels: +13.00% (150,572 to 170,774).
Non-homesteaded parcels: -3.59% (144,836 to 139,666).
The mix is now roughly 55/45 homesteaded to non-homesteaded; the most owner-occupant-tilted in the Houston metro.
How values moved (homesteaded series; the trustworthy read):
Period | Avg AV change (all) | Avg AV change (homesteaded) | Avg MV change (all) | Avg MV change (homesteaded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 → 2024 | +29.2% | +10.7% | +30.8% | +4.5% |
2024 → 2025 | (see note)* | +6.6% | (see note)* | +2.9% |
2025 → 2026 | +21.6% | +2.8% | +18.3% | 0.0% |
*Note: Montgomery's 2024-2025 "all properties" averages (+516.8% AV, +546.7% MV) are excluded as base-year math artifacts due to reclassification of properties.
Homesteaded AV: +10.7%, +6.6%, +2.8%. Decelerating sharply in each successive year.
Homesteaded MV: +4.5%, +2.9%, 0%. The market went flat in 2026.
In the most recent year, homesteaded assessments still grew (+2.8%) while homesteaded market values were unchanged.
County-wide all-properties averages for 2024-2025 (+516.8% AV, +546.7% MV) are clear base-year math artifacts and should be excluded.
The clean three-year deceleration in homesteaded AV (from +10.7% down to +2.8%) mirrors the cooling in homesteaded market values.
Together, they paint a picture of a market that has stopped accelerating just as the county is becoming meaningfully more owner-occupied.
What This Means for Montgomery Homeowners
If you became a Montgomery homesteader in the past two years, your assessed value almost certainly grew faster than your market value did in 2025-2026.
The cap protects you long-term, but parcel-level review is where the savings are.
Austin Area
What The Three Years of Travis County Property Values are Telling Us
The housing market cooled hard in 2024 and 2025. Market values fell 5-8% a year across most price ranges and are just now turning positive again in 2026.
But assessed values (what you pay taxes on) didn’t fall along with the market. They mostly stayed flat or climbed.
How the residential roll changed:
Total residential parcels: +2.3% over three years (373,651 to 382,109).
Homesteaded parcels: +1.0% (255,643 to 258,118).
Non-homesteaded parcels: +5.1% (118,008 to 123,991).
Travis is one of only two counties in this report where non-homesteaded parcels grew faster than homesteaded ones. That’s a 5-to-1 growth ratio in favor of rental, investor, and second-home properties:
Values changed dramatically different for homestead and non-homestead properties.
Period | Avg AV change (all) | Avg AV change (homesteaded) | Avg MV change (all) | Avg MV change (homesteaded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 → 2024 | +25.7% | +10.6% | +17.7% | -3.1% |
2024 → 2025 | +24.9% | +1.4% | +23.7% | -5.8% |
2025 → 2026 | +16.7% | +1.9% | +12.8% | +1.6% |
The single biggest finding in this data set is the gap between what the average Travis County homeowner saw on their assessed value and what homesteaded owners saw.
Texas caps annual assessed-value growth on a primary residence at 10% a year. Without that cap, your assessment can rise as fast as the appraiser’s market estimate. The result, in this data:
In 2024 to 2025, the average homesteaded home’s assessed value rose just 1.4%. The average across all properties rose 24.9%. That’s a 23-point gap — the widest in three years.
In 2025 to 2026, the pattern held: 1.9% for homesteaded vs. 16.7% for all properties.
Put simply, a non-homesteaded home worth the same as your neighbor’s may be assessed 10-20 percentage points higher every year.
Why this matters: If Travis County is your primary residence and you haven’t filed a homestead exemption, do it. It’s free, it’s one form, and it’s the single most valuable tax break a Texas homeowner can claim.
This is the storyline most homeowners miss, and it mattered most in 2024 and 2025, when market values fell but assessed values didn’t follow:
From 2024 to 2025, the average market value of all residential properties rose 23.7%, while the homesteaded market value fell 5.8%. Yet assessed values still crept up 1.4% for homesteaders — a clear sign the cap is preventing tax relief even when the market softens.
From 2023 to 2024, homesteaded market values fell 3.1%, but homesteaded assessed values still rose 10.6%.
What This Means for Austin Homeowners:
When appraised market value falls, but your assessed value rises, you could be paying more tax on a home that’s worth less.
Hays County: The Biggest Owner-Occupant Shift in Texas's Major Counties
Homesteaded parcels +22.7%. Non-homesteaded parcels -19.1%. The composition of Hays County housing changed.
Beyond Travis, Hays is the only Austin-metro county in this dataset, and its three-year shift toward homesteaded ownership is the most dramatic in the entire report.
No county in this report had a sharper three-year mix shift than Hays.
The entire net growth in residential parcels (and then some) came from new homesteaders, while rentals, investment properties, and second homes shrank.
At the same time, the typical homesteaded property saw two consecutive years of paper market-value declines.
How the residential roll changed:
Total residential parcels: +4.16% over three years.
Homesteaded parcels: +22.75% (49,681 to 61,533); the largest percentage gain in the dataset.
Non-homesteaded parcels: -19.13% (43,263 to 35,320); the steepest decline in the dataset.
How values moved (homesteaded series; the cleaner read):
Homesteaded AV: +8.5%, +4.5%, +2.3%. A clear three-year cooling.
Homesteaded MV: -5.3%, -2.2%, +1.1%. Market values fell in two of the three years.
Owner-occupants in Hays absorbed two consecutive years of paper market-value declines while still seeing assessment growth.
How the all-properties series compared:
Period | Avg AV change (all) | Avg AV change (homesteaded) | Avg MV change (all) | Avg MV change (homesteaded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 → 2024 | +27.0% | +8.5% | +21.1% | -5.3% |
2024 → 2025 | +23.5% | +4.5% | +26.7% | -2.2% |
2025 → 2026 | +13.7% | +2.3% | +8.7% | +1.1% |
All-properties AV: +27.0%, +23.5%, +13.7%.
All-properties MV: +21.1%, +26.7%, +8.7%.
The gap between those numbers and the homesteaded series is among the widest in the report. The homestead cap protected owner-occupants from full-market increases that, in some years, were 18 to 21 percentage points higher than what they actually paid.
Put together, Hays looks like a county becoming meaningfully more owner-occupied at the same time the underlying housing market has cooled. Population growth in San Marcos and the Kyle-Buda corridor is showing up in the homestead numbers; market values are not yet rising to match.
What This Means for Hays Homeowners
If you owned a homesteaded property in Hays in 2024 or 2025, your market value most likely fell while your assessment rose due to the lagging effect from COVID growth.
That mismatch is the single strongest fact pattern for a successful protest.
San Antonio Area
Bexar County is the lone San Antonio-metro county in this dataset. Its 2025-2026 numbers mark the first year in three where market and assessed values went broadly flat, alongside a continued shift toward homesteaded ownership.
Bexar County: The Market Just Went Flat, and the Homestead Cap Kept Its Promise
First year of effectively zero countywide AV growth, paired with a continued homesteader influx.
Bexar County's most recent year is the cleanest "plateau" reading in this report. After two years of double-digit assessment growth, BCAD effectively stopped raising values across the board in 2026. At the same time, the typical homesteaded owner has now seen mildly negative market values for two consecutive years.
How the residential roll changed:
Total residential parcels: +1.48% (614,032 to 623,122).
Homesteaded parcels: +6.28%; more than 24,000 net new owner-occupants.
Non-homesteaded parcels: -6.94%; more than 15,000 lost.
How values moved (averages, year over year):
Period | Avg AV change (all) | Avg AV change (homesteaded) | Avg MV change (all) | Avg MV change (homesteaded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 → 2024 | +14.5% | +9.1% | +15.3% | +1.4% |
2024 → 2025 | +17.4% | +3.3% | +40.0%* | -1.3% |
2025 → 2026 | +0.1% | -0.6% | -1.1% | -2.4% |
* The 2024-2025 county-wide MV figure is anomalously high; likely a base-year math artifact.
AV, all residential properties: +14.5%, +17.4%, +0.1%. Essentially flat in 2026 after major increases.
AV, homesteaded only: +9.1%, +3.3%, -0.6%. A small decline in the most recent year.
MV, all residential properties: +15.3%, +40.0%, -1.1%. (The 2024-2025 figure is a likely base-year math artifact.)
MV, homesteaded only: +1.4%, -1.3%, -2.4%. Mildly negative for two straight years.
Bexar is the only county in this report where homesteaded assessments contracted in 2026.
Two takeaways stand out.
First, the 2025-2026 numbers are remarkably synchronized: every category, all-properties AV, homesteaded AV, all-properties MV, homesteaded MV, was within a band of just under three percentage points around zero.
Second, the homesteaded market-value series went negative in two of three years. That is unusual against the backdrop of San Antonio's population growth, and it points to more owners paying tax on values that have stopped rising.
What This Means for Bexar Homeowners
If you owned a Bexar homestead through 2025 or 2026, your market value almost certainly went down on paper while your assessment kept climbing through 2025.
West Texas Area
El Paso County: A Cooling Market and a Quiet Owner-Occupant Shift
Homesteaded market values cooled to +2.4% in 2026, validating the El Paso CAD's headline number reported by El Paso Times writer, Vic Kolenc, but the Ownwell data adds a layer that the article doesn’t have.
How the residential roll changed:
Total residential parcels: 270,107 to 278,309 to 275,768.
A net +2.10% over three years; the roll grew, then gave most of that growth back in 2026.
Homesteaded parcels: 166,329 to 180,755.
Up +8.67% (+14,426 net new owner-occupants).
Non-homesteaded parcels: 103,778 to 95,013. Down -8.45% (-8,765 lost).
El Paso is now meaningfully more owner-occupied than it was three years ago; a similar pattern we saw in Hays, Bexar, and Montgomery.
How values moved (homesteaded series; the cleaner read):
Period | Avg AV change (all) | Avg AV change (homesteaded) | Avg MV change (all) | Avg MV change (homesteaded) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 → 2024 | +49.7%* | +11.2%+ | +55.2%* | +10.4% |
2024 → 2025 | 35.9%* | +9.3% | +39.1%* | +4.4% |
2025 → 2026 | +40.1%* | +7.0% | +43.2%* | +2.4% |
Homesteaded AV: +11.2%, +9.3%, +7.0%. Cleanly decelerating each year.
Homesteaded MV: +10.4%, +4.4%, +2.4%. Cooled sharply.
The county's "all properties" averages are anomalously high every single year (+49.7% / +35.9% / +40.1% AV; +55.2% / +39.1% / +43.2% MV).
These are the largest base-year math artifacts in the dataset and are excluded from headline takeaways.
What This Means for El Paso Homeowners
El Paso is now much more owner‑occupied than it was three years ago. More people are living in the homes they own, and fewer are investor-held.
The El Paso CAD itself expects 2026 protests to bring values down further. The only question for an El Paso homeowner is whether they file.
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About This Data
Source: County-level residential parcel data for Bexar, Dallas, Denton, El Paso, Fort Bend, Harris, Hays, Montgomery, Tarrant, and Travis counties.
Methodology notes: Year-over-year change uses the new year as the denominator and is averaged across all matched residential parcels.
The three periods are not strictly additive: a 2023-to-2026 cumulative change would require a different calculation.
Where a county-wide "all properties" average looks anomalously high (typically driven by a small subset of parcels with very low prior-year base values, including new builds, recently subdivided parcels, or reclassifications), it has been flagged in the body, and the homesteaded average is presented as the more representative read.
Market-value bands: Travis County is the only county in the source data with market-value-band detail. This report does not analyze MV bands for the other counties because the data is not available.
Roll-release timing:
Several Texas appraisal districts, including Harris CAD, release their certified rolls in batches over multiple cycles rather than in a single annual cut. As a result, year-over-year parcel counts can move materially because of dataset timing rather than real market activity.
"Unnoticed" parcels (parcels with $0 market values that have not yet been finalized for the year) can show up as missing from a given year's snapshot and then reappear in a later batch. Where a parcel-count change looks unusually large (Harris's 2026 contraction is the most prominent example in this brief), part or most of the move is likely a timing artifact.
Note that the average MV and AV change figures are not affected, because they’re calculated only on parcels that exist in both the prior and current years; only the raw parcel counts should be read with this caveat in mind.
