2006 Sales data from HCAD available

[mpbro]

Just a note for non-realtors out there: 2006 sales data have been released by HCAD. I do not know the "cleanliness" of these data. Likely they are MLS sales, which may be verified by HCAD via the Harris County recorder.

These data, as well as 2007 assessment data, are available at voxproperty.com. You can get raw data at pdata.hcad.org (not user-friendly).

Before I managed to update the database and move to California, I really screwed things up. The long and short of it: most user-generated content is gone forever. But at least the data are current.

[MidtownCoog]

Thanks for posting. I plan to protest. But every sales-data sample I see shows that I may acutally be undervalued.

Not sure what my protest grounds will be now. I need to rethink my approach.

[mpbro]

Thanks for posting. I plan to protest. But every sales-data sample I see shows that I may acutally be undervalued.

Not sure what my protest grounds will be now. I need to rethink my approach.

Well, luckily the assessments lag actual sales in most places. If you can just show that your assessment is higher than a peer property nearby, you're good.

Unfortunately, I don't display the feature that lets you compare to other houses, even those that didn't sell. It's still there, but hidden from average users. That is what you need for tax protest. I just ran out of gas on development for this site. A great feature would be a little button that says "prepare my tax protest" and just made a graph and spreadsheet of peer properties with a lower assessed value.

HCAD played a funny trick on me. So state law caps tax increases at 10% per annum. HCAD increased my land value by 20%, then *decreased* my structure value such that the total assessment only increased by 10%. My structure value went from $89K to $30K! Unfortunately, land values are not protestable--only the structure value is.