{"id":265943,"date":"2026-04-25T14:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T14:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/265943\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T14:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T14:29:10","slug":"tax-appraisals-are-here-what-you-need-to-know-local-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/265943\/","title":{"rendered":"Tax appraisals are here. What you need to know | Local News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most El Paso property owners have received their appraisal notices in the mail, kicking off the race to May 15 \u2013 the deadline to protest the taxable values of their homes and businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to check those notices,\u201d said Dinah Kilgore, executive director of the El Paso Central Appraisal District. \u201cIf you have problems reading them, give us a call. We\u2019ll help you understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The appraisal district\u2019s annual valuations, along with tax rates, determine how much property owners will owe in taxes on an estimated 450,000 parcels of taxable land in the city and county. Because Texas has no state income tax, the multitude of local taxing entities \u2013 including school, utility and hospital districts, as well as the county\u2019s small towns and cities \u2013 rely heavily on property taxes to fund public services.<\/p>\n

As home prices have risen in recent years, property taxes have followed, leading to a spike in the number of challenges to the appraisal district\u2019s official valuations. Before the COVID-19 pandemic led to soaring home production costs, the appraisal district typically had about 20,000 protests each year. But now, with property owners riled by the increasing valuations, the agency handles about 46,000 protests annually, Kilgore said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHome values have gone up, and we have not seen them go back down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As the agency\u2019s director since 2010, Kilgore is familiar with the pitfalls that keep many El Pasoans from using the available tools to lower their tax burden. Besides missing the protest deadline, she said some homeowners are not tapping into the available exemptions.<\/p>\n

An exemption reduces a portion of the taxable value of your property, which lowers your taxes. For example, if a home is appraised at $100,000 and $20,000 in exemptions are applied, a homeowner is only responsible for paying taxes on $80,000 of the appraisal.<\/p>\n

With more than 50 possible exemptions, Kilgore said it\u2019s important for homeowners to review each one. The exemptions are listed on the appraisal district\u2019s website, epcad.org<\/a>. The most common is the homestead exemption, which provides a $140,000 exemption on the taxable value for most area school districts.<\/p>\n

With the homestead exemption applied, the taxable value of a homeowner\u2019s residence cannot increase by more than 10% from one year to the next, regardless of how much the market value rises.<\/p>\n

More than 40 taxing entities are within El Paso County, each with its own tax rate. The county tax rate is 45.8 cents per $100 in assessed value, and the city\u2019s rate is 75.9 cents.<\/p>\n

Appraisals are sometimes inaccurate<\/p>\n

Although tax rates may change, one of the biggest factors affecting property tax bills is the market value of the property. The appraisal district uses mass appraisals of neighborhoods to estimate individual valuations, a process that can sometimes miss details.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not infallible,\u201d Kilgore said. \u201cWe try to be as accurate as we can, and we try to be as fair and equal as we can, but if we miss something, then bring it to our attention so that we can look at it and see if it needs to be adjusted.\u201d<\/p>\n

She explained that it is financially impossible to conduct individual assessments of hundreds of thousands of El Paso County parcels, and encourages property owners to consult with property tax experts who may be able to provide evidence that supports a lower valuation.<\/p>\n

The Greater El Paso Association of Realtors has launched a public campaign to provide that service. Armed with sales price data from the Multiple Listing Service \u2013 a comprehensive home sales database compiled by real estate professionals \u2013 the association is offering homeowners data to help determine whether their property\u2019s appraised value reflects the local market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appraisal district does not have access to our MLS,\u201d said Tony Delgado, CEO of the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors and MLS. \u201cWe are very committed to accuracy and verified sales. The source of our MLS are the actual brokers that are entering the information into our system, from people that are actually closing the transactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delgado, a former appraisal district employee and tax adviser for 20 years, said one of the best ways to challenge an appraisal is to show the appraisal district a report from the association of comparable home sales in your area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s good evidence to show that they have appraised you too high,\u201d he said, but cautioned that if the independent analysis shows your property actually has a higher market valuation than the appraisal district\u2019s assessment, \u201cthen that\u2019s stuff that you don\u2019t want to share.\u201d<\/p>\n

The appraisal district is audited by the Texas comptroller\u2019s office every other year to ensure that its valuations are within 95% of market values. To adhere to the requirements, Kilgore said the appraisal district surveys neighborhoods and consults with finance and mortgage companies to estimate sales figures for comparable homes.<\/p>\n

The district also uses aerial imagery and \u201cboots on the ground\u201d for general inspections of neighborhoods every three years. For new subdivisions, appraisers evaluate factors such as construction type and building materials.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay it\u2019s a new neighborhood that\u2019s going in in the Northeast, we\u2019ll look at the type of construction. How is it being constructed? Is it metal framing? Is it wood framing? We have guidelines that we go by,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In addition to square footage, the district also looks at details like plumbing quality \u2013 copper or plastic \u2013 as well as the type of air conditioning, whether there\u2019s a swimming pool, the rules of homeowners associations and zoning issues.<\/p>\n

For existing homes, appraisers also look for issues that would affect the neighborhood market, things like crumbling foundations and stucco.<\/p>\n

Delgado said the causes of home market fluctuation are often misunderstood by the public, with many people blaming the appraisal district or Realtors for the increasing prices of homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is the only one that increases the price of homes is the people who are actually buying or selling the property,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat is a seller willing to sell the property for, and what is a willing buyer willing to pay for it? That\u2019s what really sets the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there have been fewer homes on the market in recent years, which forced prices up, but the trend has shifted, with home inventories slowly growing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we are switching into more of a buyer\u2019s market,\u201d Delgado said.<\/p>\n

Public concerns with valuations<\/p>\n

Even if property tax rates are reduced, as was done recently by the city of El Paso, rising home values can still drive up property tax bills. In a low-income region like El Paso, this is keeping some people out of homeownership, some real estate experts say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so unaffordable. We are taxing homeowners out of their homes,\u201d said Isabel Veronica Chacon, an El Paso Realtor and a member of the Governmental Affairs Committee of the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors since 2018. \u201cWe can\u2019t fight valuations because, unfortunately, everything is going up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the best ways homeowners can lower their tax burden are the exemptions, primarily the homestead exemption, said Chacon, who is also the liaison between the Texas Realtors Political Involvement Committee and local elected officials.<\/p>\n

She emphasized that if more people protest their home valuations<\/a>, the more likely it is to set a collective, downward trend for property taxes, which are largely assessed by comparing the market prices of similar homes in a neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are overpaying, then you\u2019re making everybody else overpay too,\u201d she said. \u201cSo the more of us who protest, the more we take care of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the tools available to lower the taxable portion of home values, many people are not protesting their valuations.<\/p>\n

A March 2026 study on Texas homeowner attitudes found that 9 in 10 respondents \u201cworry about property tax affordability\u201d but most \u2013 74% \u2013 have never contested their valuations.<\/p>\n

That rings true for Rodolfo Montoya, a real estate agent with Montoya Real Estate Group LLC.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people receive their home valuations, and they think they are high. I\u2019ve been making calls and asking them to protest their taxes, but they don\u2019t do anything about it,\u201d said Montoya, who has been in the business for 22 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not happy with your value, protest,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s your right under Texas law. And now\u2019s the time to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

El Paso home valuations, by the numbers<\/p>\n

According to information provided by\u00a0the\u00a0Greater El Paso Association of Realtors,\u00a0the largest jump in median home sales prices was in\u00a0Far East El Paso, which experienced an 11.2%\u00a0jump from $205,000 in 2025 to $228,000 in 2026. This included the 79836 and 79849\u00a0ZIP codes.<\/p>\n

Central El Paso saw a 6.2% increase,\u00a0from $190,000 in 2025 to $201,725 in 2026. The Upper Valley\u00a0ZIP\u00a0codes of 79922 and 79932 saw a 4.2% increase,\u00a0from a median sales price of $355,000 in 2025 to $369,990 this year. The Westside\u00a0ZIP\u00a0codes of 79911 and 79912 had a modest jump from $375,000 to $379,900.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A cluster of\u00a0ZIP\u00a0codes from the Lower Valley saw a significant 7.3% decrease during that same time, dropping from a median sales price of $205,000 to $190,050. That area is the only region in El Paso County that saw a decrease in home sales prices.<\/p>\n

Property tax experts said the rise and drop in prices is simply following market trends affected by a range of factors \u2013 notably property disrepair, upgrades and spikes in\u00a0COVID\u00a0production costs \u2013 and the varying desirability of different parts of town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The average assessed valuations \u2013 before any caps or exemptions \u2013 of single-family homes in the\u00a0city of El Paso have increased steadily\u00a0over\u00a0the past\u00a0decade, according to data from the El Paso Central Appraisal District.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most El Paso property owners have received their appraisal notices in the mail, kicking off the race to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139,10616,29027],"class_list":{"0":"post-265943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-el-paso","9":"tag-el-paso-headlines","10":"tag-el-paso-news","11":"tag-factiva","12":"tag-local_news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}