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philip964 wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2019 2:37 pm The property for the Astroworld, the large amusement park next to the Astrodome and fronting on Interstate 610 Loop, was appraised at 6 million dollars. It sold for 60 million dollars.

That is how accurate commercial appraisals are.

There are other factors that can affect the value of commercial properties, that have little to do with what improvements actually exist at the time of appraisal. In the case of the Astroworld property (which I am not familiar with), if it was currently vacant - and had been for many years - the existing improvements (rides, buildings, etc..) have almost no value to anyone else and are actually be viewed as a liability, because they will have to be torn down and disposed of before a new business or development can occur. Also, nowdays anytime their is demolition of a structure, there have to be inspections done and signed off to determine what potential problems there may be. The primary one being asbestos components and other environmental hazards used in the construction if it dates prior to the 1990's. If there is any asbestos ( or other restricted product ) found, you have to have a hazmat certified abatement process followed. The land itself is where the value was, but only if the right buyer came along and foresaw sufficient profit opportunities to justify the expenditure. The fact that the Astroworld land sat vacant and unused for so many years is a good example. I think there were 5 or 6 purchasers over the years that were going to build complexes of apartments / condos, shopping center, high rise office buildings, etc...but fell through and never reached the construction phase. I believe the last purchaser was the Houston Livestock and Rodeo association with aplan to spend over $100 million on a new rodeo arena and complex.

Just a new wrinkle that everyone with commercial properties needs to be aware of and decide what your response will be to your local appraisal board. I been receiving letters from my appraisal board for the last 3 years telling me : "As you know, the income generated by a property can have an effect on determining the value of it and we need you to send us copies of your profit & loss statements on each of your commercial properties in order for us to properly determine the correct appraisal value on each of them." I told them I didn't recall ever seeing that request, but if I had, I would not have sent them that info anyway, because that would effectively be an income tax, which we do not have in Texas. I told them the appraised value of real property is the cost to build it new less the depreciation factor, plus market appreciation if applicable. I told them once they started basing the property tax on the buildings housing the local pharmacies, banks, and insurance agencies based on the income they generated per square foot, we could talk. Each year since they have sent me the same letter requesting my financial information and I tell them I still don't recall seeing it.

srothstein wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2019 12:07 am

talltex wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2019 10:57 pmYou can go to your County's Appraisal District website and pull up several residential, commercial and agriculture properties and see what the differences in each of those rates is in your County.

Just for technical accuracy, you will see the tax rates for each taxing unit. All property is taxed at the same rate by any single taxing unit though, not different rates for different types of properties. For example, if the ISD has a tax rate of 1.04, all property is taxed at the same rate of 1.04 per $100 valuation.

That is correct. I guess I didnt' make it clear that what I meant was you can go to the appraisal board and see what the exact rate is for Residential, Commercial, and Agricultural properties and what the exact percentage rate is for each of the different taxing entities that comprise the total property tax for that specific county. Each individual County controls it's own tax rates, but they are often forced to raise rates as the State shifts more costs to them by reducing the amount the State funds to them. For the last 15 years, the State has been lowering the amount of money it contributes to each school district while continually adding new programs and expanding existing ones that must be funded by the County's school districts-make up the majority of each county's taxes. Those are referred to as "unfunded mandates" - the State of Texas tells the counties that they must do something, but doesn't provide any increased funding to do so from the State, which means the County's have to come up with the additional funds to meet the new State mandates.

Papa_Tiger wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:23 pm

talltex wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:44 pm The term exemption throws a lot of people off because it sounds like they don't have to pay ANY taxes. They do pay tax on it but at a greatly reduced rate. The exemption reduces the taxable "assessed" value of the land from the appraisal office valuation to 6.5% of the "appraised value". For example a 500 acre ranch "appraised" at $1,000,000.00 would be taxed at the same price as a $65,000.00 house.

I don't know that that is 100% correct. The land I own with my family is assessed at ~$300K and the "agricultural value" is ~$1K. We pay taxes on the $1K agricultural value. We still pay taxes on the value of the homes on the property, so it isn't like the county/school district aren't getting any money from us.

Depends on the County you live in. Every County in Texas has it's own Appraisal District Office which sets the appraisal values. The actual tax rates themselves are set by the various taxing entities in each County. The County Judge and the County Commissioners set the County property tax rates, the individual towns tax rates are set by the City Council, the School Tax Rates are set by the School Board of Directors in each individual School District within the County, and there may be other taxing entities that also apply, such as a Hospital Authority District which sets those tax rates. You can go to your County's Appraisal District website and pull up several residential, commercial and agriculture properties and see what the differences in each of those rates is in your County. You will probably find some huge variations in what appears to be similar properties because most people never check and file a protest when they see someone else with a much lower apprasial for properties of very similar sizes and ages. Generally, the School Tax is by far the largest portion coming in at over 50% of the total with the City and County each accounting for about 20-25%, and if in a hospital district, about 4-5% of the total.

thechl wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2019 9:41 am The real evil is the agricultural exemption. I pay more property tax on my little plot in a suburban neighborhood than many pay for their hundreds of acres that produce little/nothing. But those folks who own vast tracts of land have bought enough legislative influence that the ag exemption will never go away, nor even be modified fairly.

The agricultural tax exemption allows farm and ranch owners to hang onto their property. If ag land was taxed at the same rate as houses and commercial property there would be no cattle ranches, or farms. It takes about 4 to 25 acres of land to graze one cow depending on the location. There are areas in West and Southwest Texas where you need 100 acres per cow plus you still have to supplement feed and maintain water tanks for them. When the ranchland gets sold for residential development like you've seen all over north central Texas, then the taxes get collected. I have a friend that had an 1100 acre ranch between McKinney and Denton that had been in his family for over 100 years and they didn't want to sell, but eventually they were surrounded by high dollar real estate subdivisions. About 25 years ago they got fed up with all the traffic and congestion that now encircled them and sold it and came down here and bought more ranchland so they could continue to live the way they had for generations. And yes, they got rich selling up there and buying down here. That trend has accelerated greatly in the last 15 years and now over 85% of all the farm and ranchland in this area is owned by people that relocated from what are now metro areas. Most of these places are what we refer to as "hobby ranches"--they buy some cows and horses and have someone else take care of them or they lease the land for grazing rights to offset some of their expenses. Does the Ag Exemption get abused? Absolutley, but without it there would be no farms and ranches. The term exemption throws a lot of people off because it sounds like they don't have to pay ANY taxes. They do pay tax on it but at a greatly reduced rate. The exemption reduces the taxable "assessed" value of the land from the appraisal office valuation to 6.5% of the "appraised value". For example a 500 acre ranch "appraised" at $1,000,000.00 would be taxed at the same price as a $65,000.00 house.