Ramirez Team Austin Real Estate - Empowering Homeowners

Owning a home is a milestone that comes with a myriad of responsibilities and financial considerations. Among these, applying for a homestead exemption is a crucial step that often gets overlooked. Austin residents, this one’s for you – understanding the significance of this exemption can significantly impact your financial landscape.

As of 2022, homeowners were allowed to apply for this exemption just after purchasing instead of waiting until the following year to apply. The benefits are worth the small effort to apply! As you know by now, we are committed to keeping you as educated and homeowner-savvy as possible.

Now is a great time to check your property profile on the TCAD website to make sure your homestead exemption was processed for this year's tax savings because having this on your property can save you hundreds to thousands of dollars every year. If you don't see yours but you sent in your application, it may be a simple mistake on the county's part - but we are here to help you figure it out. Keep reading to follow the steps to confirming your exemption status and tax savings!

Every year we have a handful of clients who didn't or couldn't prioritize this from their purchase and they ended up overpaying by an average of $6,000+ (but luckily, we caught it so that they can work on getting a refund! If you aren't sure if your exemption was processed in time, we'd love to help you through confirming this so that you can get a refund from the tax office if possible.

Reminder of Your Homestead Exemption Benefits The main advantage is that after a full taxable year of your ownership, the taxable value cannot go up more than 10% from the previous year - meaning even if the market value goes up 20%, your taxable value can only go up 10% each year. So the longer you stay, the bigger the difference between the market and taxable values. This benefit doesn’t go into effect until after the first full year of ownership (if you purchased in 2022… it is technically applied for 2023, and the cap should be present for 2024 and beyond.

The exemption also lowers your property taxes by removing part of the value of your property from taxation - sometimes by about 20%+/-. (This amount depends on each county). This benefit is effective immediately in the year you apply, so could be immediate savings for you but would require you to hastily apply after purchase.

Follow the steps below to ensure your property tax savings can begin immediately:

If you haven't, please submit your homestead exemption application to your county's Central Appraisal District - below are links to the local county appraisal district websites:
TravisCAD | WilliamsonCAD | HaysCAD | BastropCAD

If you have already submitted your application, your exemption should be listed on the "property search" page of your county's CAD website, under "Exemptions". If you do not see "HS" as confirmation that they have processed your application, you may have to contact your Central Appraisal District directly to check the status of any applications in progress or that may have been denied - you may have to re-submit if it was lost for any reason. Once the exemption is placed on your property, you should not have to complete this process again as long as it remains your primary residence. As far as we know, an application can be submitted up to two years after your purchase date. The sooner the better, so that you do not have to go through extra efforts to contact the tax office to process any tax prorations/refunds, or miss the application window.
If your exemption is then processed/confirmed, check your property search page on your CAD website again to confirm your exemption status.
Once your exemption status is confirmed, head to the section called "Taxing Units". To the right you should see two columns - "net appraised" and "taxable value". Though your 10% homestead exemption cap won't go into effect until after your first full year in the property, the discount from taxable value should still apply. You will know this benefit is in effect when "taxable value" varies from your "net appraised value" in applicable fields, like below:
If you do not see the "taxable value" varying from the "net appraised", we recommend contacting the tax office AND/OR the central appraisal district for your county to discuss any savings benefits that could be retroactively applied before or after your 2022 tax bill is paid in the next month or so. Links to the local county Central Appraisal District website's are below:

Travis County | Williamson County | Hays County | Bastrop County

We know this can all be very confusing! Set a meeting with us and we will walk you through this on the phone or by screen share!

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At The Ramirez Team, we understand the complexities of real estate, and we're here to simplify them for you. Don't miss out on the opportunity to make well-informed decisions and embark on a successful real estate journey. Join our community of educated homebuyers - together, let's unlock the doors to homeownership and build wealth through real estate. Our YouTube video series is dedicated to addressing common homeowner questions and offering practical, money-saving tips. Whether you're a first-time buyer or a seasoned homeowner, our videos cover a wide array of topics, including understanding property taxes, mortgage refinancing, home improvement ROI, and much more.