About 49 percent of homeowners in Tarrant County will see a drop in their property appraisal values for 2011, according to preliminary data from the Tarrant Appraisal District.
About 15 percent of the county's 630,000 single-family homeowners will see an increase ranging from $1 to $7,000, Chief Appraiser Jeff Law said today. About 5 percent will see an increase above $7,000.Last year, about 80 percent of single-family homeowners saw their property values decline. It was the first overall decline in valuations in Tarrant County since 1993.Overall, Tarrant's taxable value is estimated at $123.2 billion, a 0.99 percent increase over last year."What I'm anticipating is that flat is going to be good," said Law, noting that the "very preliminary" numbers are unadjusted for protests and homestead exemptions. "There's a possibility of a small downward trend but the preliminary numbers appear to show an increase."The county's total market value rose slightly from $131.2 billion in 2010 to $133.2 billion. Market value is the gross value on an account before any exemptions are applied.TAD is warning taxing entities that they should anticipate additional losses of up to 2 percent after protests are filed."Once we go through the protests, if we can come back flat, I would consider that good," Law said.The deadline for filing protests is May 31, and Law said he hopes to see fewer protests because overall values have declined for two straight years.In 2009, when the real estate market was reeling, TAD had a record 92,000 protests. That number declined to 72,000 in 2010.In Everman, where values were down nearly 11 percent last year, city manager Donna Anderson said she was relieved that values only fell 0.06 percent."I thought it would go down again. This is a relief. It could be worse," she said, noting that the city has been forced to dip into reserve funds for the last five years.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
