The Dallas County Appraisal Review Board has received over 250,000 protests for 2026.
Juan Figueroa/Staff Photographer
Dallas County is facing a record number of property tax protests in 2026 that will likely extend the protest process into September.
The Dallas Central Appraisal District is working to certify the county’s property tax appraisal roll by Saturday, but hearings for property tax protests will continue for months.
The Dallas County Appraisal Review Board has received over 250,000 protests for 2026, according to an alert posted on the appraisal district website. The sustained increase of property tax protests is extending the protest hearing process and causing the board to seek out new solutions.
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A property tax protest is a formal process where property owners can attempt to lower their assessed property value or challenge the actions of the local appraisal district.
Property owners can file a protest if they believe their proposed property value is too high, is valued unequally compared with other properties or if the chief appraiser denied an exemption. The appraisal district estimates roughly 60% of property owners who file a timely protest and provide relevant evidence see some type of adjustment.
Since 2018, total property tax protests in the county have increased by about 67%, reaching 250,570 as of last week, according to appraisal district data.
The number of property tax protests is outpacing population growth in Dallas County. The county’s population increased 1.2% from 2018 to 2025, or about 31,633 people, and it dropped from 2024 to 2025, according to recent census estimates.
Due to the volume of protests, not all accounts have been scheduled for a hearing yet and hearings will likely continue through September, according to a news release on the appraisal district website.
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About 10 years ago, the appraisal district tended to finish the reviews by July 20, according to a statement from the appraisal district. However, as protest filings have increased, the process has extended into October since 2022.
Despite an increase in protests, the appraisal district said it will continue business as usual.
“DCAD anticipates certifying the 2026 appraisal roll for the 63 taxing jurisdictions within Dallas County by July 25, 2026, as less than 10% of the appraisal roll will not be in dispute as of July 20, 2026,” the appraisal district said.
Tax appraisal rolls determine the total amount of property value that is taxable for cities, school districts and other tax jurisdictions.
For example, last year Dallas had a total taxable value of $210 billion, according to county appraisal rolls, and a tax rate of about 69.88 cents per $100 of valuation. Property taxes paid to the city are used to support the general fund and debt service fund of the city, according to the city budget. In the 2025-26 budget, property taxes made up about $1.13 billion of the city’s $1.96 billion general fund. In 2025, the City Council approved Dallas’ budget in September.
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Many Dallas County cities are seeing their tax appraisal rolls grow. Last year, the tax appraisal rolls of cities like Wilmer, Lancaster, Seagoville and Combine saw their total taxable value increase over 10%.
The Dallas County Appraisal Review Board has received over 250,000 protests for 2026.
Juan Figueroa/Staff Photographer
To handle future protests, the appraisal district signed a lease agreement in January for about 20,000 square feet of space in an office building on Mockingbird Lane, according to a document reviewed by The Dallas Morning News.
The appraisal district confirmed it had leased the space. The district said the appraisal review board is occupying the space and the goal is to conduct telephone hearings and some residential property tax representative hearings at the Mockingbird Lane location.
The appraisal district’s current offices, at 2949 N. Stemmons Freeway, will still host in-person hearings, the appraisal district said. The Stemmons Freeway location has space for 28 hearing panel rooms, the appraisal district said. The new location will allow for 44 additional appraisal review board panel hearing rooms.
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Protests submitted by residential tax consultants and companies are increasing at a faster rate than individual residential protests, according to appraisal district data.
This year, The News launched TX Tax in Dallas County, a property tax tool to help homeowners determine if they have a strong case and to file a protest with confidence. TX Tax provides data to help individuals filing protests and does not represent homeowners throughout the protest process.
Residential property tax protests submitted by consultants rose by 174% since 2018. Meanwhile, individual residential protests were at similar levels in 2018 and 2026.
Ownwell, an Austin-based property tax protest company, exists to help property owners who don’t have the time, patience or data to protest themselves, Ownwell CEO Colton Pace said in a statement. The company, and other firms like it, handle the entire process, gathering evidence, attending hearings and escalating the protest to an appraisal review board if necessary.
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Ownwell conducted a survey of 520 Texas homeowners in March where it found that the number of respondents who had ever protested their property taxes increased to 46%, up from 38% the previous year. Pace said there is more awareness about the need to protest your property taxes and that Texans who have protested are seeing successful results.
Increasing filings by residential tax agents is likely the biggest challenge for most appraisal districts in metro areas due to time constraints, staffing levels and facility capacity, the Dallas Central Appraisal District said in a statement.
Based on residential agent tax protest trends, the appraisal district estimates it will have approximately 300,000 protest filings by 2030.
The deadline to submit a property tax protests was in May. Once an account is scheduled for an appraisal review board hearing, a notice will be mailed to the property owner at least 15 days in advance, according to the appraisal district website. Property owners can contact the appraisal district for an informal review with an appraiser to resolve the protest.
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The appraisal review board didn’t hold hearings while the tax appraisal rolls were finalized this week. Hearings resume July 27.