Austin Property Tax Updates: What Changed for 2026 Homeowners

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Your property tax bill is one of the biggest, most overlooked numbers in homeownership — and 2026 brought real changes worth understanding before your bill lands.

I talk to homeowners and buyers about a lot of numbers — purchase price, mortgage rate, closing costs. But property taxes are the number that quietly follows you every single year you own your home, and most people don't think about it until the bill shows up or the appraisal notice lands in the mailbox looking higher than expected.

2026 brought some real, material changes for Travis County homeowners — both in terms of new exemptions that can save you real money, and a protest deadline that's worth marking on your calendar right now, not in April when the notice actually arrives. Here's the full breakdown.

How Your Property Tax Bill Actually Gets Calculated

Before getting into what changed, it helps to understand the basic formula, because it explains why every part of this matters.

The Travis Central Appraisal District, or TCAD, determines the market value of your home each year as of January 1. From there, if you have a homestead exemption, certain limitations reduce that market value down to what's called your net appraised value. Exemption amounts are then subtracted from that net appraised value to arrive at your taxable value — the actual number used to calculate what you owe.

Your taxable value gets multiplied by the combined tax rate of every taxing entity that applies to your property. That typically includes Travis County itself, your school district, the City of Austin if you're within city limits, Central Health, Austin Community College, and sometimes additional special districts like a Municipal Utility District depending on your specific neighborhood.

For the 2026 tax year, the Travis County tax rate itself sits at 37.5845 cents per $100 of taxable value. But that's just one piece of the total bill — once you stack in school district, city, and other entity rates, most Travis County homeowners land at a combined effective rate somewhere between 1.3 percent and 2.1 percent of their assessed value, depending on exactly which taxing entities apply to their specific property.

The Big Exemption Changes for 2026

This is the part I want every homeowner to actually understand, because it represents real, meaningful savings if you know how to claim it.

The general residence homestead exemption increased from $100,000 to $140,000 for school district tax calculations, retroactive to January 1, 2026. This change came through Proposition 13 and removes an additional $40,000 from your home's taxable value specifically for school taxes, which make up a significant portion of most total bills. For the typical homeowner, this exemption increase saves approximately $490 annually on school taxes alone.

For homeowners who are 65 or older, or who qualify due to a disability, the additional exemption jumped even further — from $10,000 to $60,000, under Proposition 11. Combined with the standard homestead exemption, that brings eligible seniors and disabled homeowners to a total exemption of $200,000 off their school district taxable value.

Travis County also offers its own homestead exemption on top of the state-level exemption — 20 percent of your home's value, which is the maximum allowed under Texas law, plus an additional $85,500 exemption for homeowners who are 65 or older or disabled.

If you haven't yet filed for your homestead exemption, the deadline to file is April 30 each year, and you can apply as soon as you purchase and occupy your home as your primary residence. This is genuinely one of the simplest, highest-value pieces of paperwork in all of homeownership, and I'm always surprised by how many people either forget to file it or don't realize it doesn't happen automatically.

The 10 Percent Homestead Cap

One more protection worth understanding: if your home is homesteaded, Texas law caps how much your taxable value can increase each year at 10 percent, regardless of how much your market value technically rises. This cap is part of why protesting your appraised value matters even in years when the broader market is climbing fast — it limits how much of that increase can actually hit your tax bill in any single year, but only if your homestead exemption is properly filed and in place.

What's Happening With Actual Appraised Values Right Now

Here's something that might surprise you given how much attention rising home prices get in the news: Travis County's median appraised value for the 2026 tax year actually came in at $465,264, down slightly from $473,718 in 2025 — roughly a 1.2 percent decrease year over year.

That cooling reflects the broader shift happening across the Austin market after the rapid run-up years. A lot of 2026 appraisals are still catching up to that shift, meaning some homeowners may find their appraised value sitting higher than what their home would realistically sell for today. That mismatch is exactly the kind of situation a property tax protest is designed to correct.

Worth noting too: looking at recent sales data against appraised values across the county, the median sale-to-appraisal ratio currently sits at 1.02, meaning the typical recent home sale closed slightly above TCAD's appraised value. That suggests appraisals overall have been lagging the market rather than running ahead of it — but individual properties can still land well outside that median in either direction, which is exactly why it's worth checking your own number rather than assuming it's accurate.

The Protest Deadline You Need to Know

If you believe your home's appraised value is higher than what it would realistically sell for, you have the right to protest it — and the process is more accessible than most homeowners realize.

The deadline to file a protest in Travis County is May 15, 2026, or 30 days after TCAD mails your Notice of Appraised Value, whichever is later. TCAD typically mails these notices in April to any property owner whose value increased by at least $1,000, so if you haven't received yours yet and your value did increase, expect it soon.

This deadline is firm. Missing it means losing your right to protest for the entire year, regardless of how strong your case might have been.

Filing online through TCAD's portal is the fastest and most reliable method, and it gives you instant confirmation that your protest was received. You'll need the property owner ID and PIN from your Notice of Appraised Value to create your account. If you'd rather file by mail, protests can be sent to Travis Central Appraisal District, PO Box 149012, Austin, TX 78714. One practical tip: TCAD's online system tends to get overloaded as the May 15 deadline approaches, so filing early rather than waiting until the last few days is worth the small effort.

If your protest moves forward to a formal hearing, the Appraisal Review Board will mail you a hearing notice at least 15 days in advance. In-person hearings take place at the Travis Central Appraisal District office at 850 East Anderson Lane. You're entitled to bring evidence supporting your case — generally five sets of whatever documentation you're presenting — and you have the right to be represented by an agent at the hearing if you'd prefer not to handle it yourself.

If the Appraisal Review Board agrees with your protest, your home's market value gets reduced, which decreases your property tax liability across every single taxing entity that applies to your property — not just one. That's part of why even a relatively modest reduction can add up to meaningful annual savings.

There's also genuinely no downside to filing. Your property's value cannot increase as a direct result of filing a protest. If TCAD doesn't grant a reduction, your value simply stays where it was. The only real cost is the time it takes to file and, if you go to a formal hearing, to prepare your evidence.

If You're Outside Travis County: Williamson and Hays Counties

Everything above is specific to Travis County, but a huge number of Austin-area buyers and homeowners I work with are actually in Williamson County — Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Leander — or Hays County, covering Kyle, Buda, San Marcos, and Dripping Springs. Both counties run their own appraisal districts, separate from TCAD, and each has its own protest deadlines and filing portals.

If you're a homeowner in Williamson County, your appraisals and protests go through the Williamson Central Appraisal District (WCAD), located at 625 FM 1460 in Georgetown. Like Travis County, the protest deadline is May 15 or 30 days after your Notice of Appraised Value is mailed, whichever is later, and WCAD offers online protest filing for property owners whose notice includes an online passcode.

If you're in Hays County, your appraisals and protests run through the Hays Central Appraisal District (Hays CAD), based at 21001 North IH 35 in Kyle. Hays County follows the same general May 15 deadline structure, and the district offers an online protest filing portal as well, though it's worth noting that every protest filed in Hays County, including those submitted online, gets scheduled for a formal hearing with the Appraisal Review Board unless an informal resolution is reached beforehand.

The exemption increases from Propositions 11 and 13 apply statewide, so the $140,000 general homestead exemption and the $200,000 combined exemption for seniors and disabled homeowners apply just as much in Williamson and Hays counties as they do in Travis. The mechanics of filing, the appraisal district you're dealing with, and the local tax rate are what differ from county to county — the underlying state-level protections are the same everywhere in Texas.

What This Means If You're Buying

If you're currently shopping for a home in the Austin area, property taxes deserve more attention in your monthly budget planning than most buyers initially give them. A home's existing tax bill — especially if the current owner has had a homestead exemption in place for years — can look very different from what your tax bill will actually be once you purchase it and that homestead cap resets.

This is something I walk every buyer through before they fall in love with a specific number on a listing. The advertised tax amount reflects the current owner's exemptions and any caps that have built up over their years of ownership. Your first year as the new owner, before your own homestead exemption and caps take effect, can look meaningfully different.

My Bottom Line for 2026

If you own a home in Travis County, there are two things I'd genuinely encourage you to do this year, regardless of anything else going on in your life. First, confirm your homestead exemption is filed and active, especially if you purchased recently — this is the single highest-value piece of paperwork in homeownership, and it's worth five minutes of your time to double check. Second, when your Notice of Appraised Value arrives this spring, actually look at it rather than setting it aside. With appraisals statistically lagging behind a cooling market right now, there's a real chance your number is worth protesting.

Neither of these requires hiring anyone or spending money upfront. They just require paying attention at the right moment, which is exactly what I'm hoping this post helps you do.

If you're buying in Austin and want to understand what a property's real, ongoing tax picture will look like once it's yours, or if you already own here and want to talk through whether your appraisal seems off, I'm always happy to have that conversation. Book a call or reach out anytime.

This post is intended as general information based on publicly available Travis, Williamson, and Hays County data and Texas Comptroller resources, and is not legal, financial, or tax advice. Tax rates, exemption amounts, and deadlines can change. Please verify current details directly with the Travis Central Appraisal District, the Williamson Central Appraisal District, or the Hays Central Appraisal District depending on where your property is located, or consult a licensed tax professional, before making decisions based on this information.