Property taxes to increase in 2016 after jumping 32% in two years

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Homeowner Lynn Hooper is at the Harris County Appraisal District looking for a break from what he's seen happening every year to the value of his home.

"It goes up the maximum it's allowed every year, 10 percent," he said.

That steady increase in property values is reflected in the Harris County statistics which show the average market value for a single family residence rising in 2013 from about $162,000 to $187,179, and then $214,000 in 2015.

That's a 32 percent increase in three years.

"A lot of people were shocked when they received their 2016 notice value, saw houses were up 10 percent to 12 percent when we're a year-and-a-half into the worst oil recession we've seen since the 1980s," said Patrick O'Connor of tax consulting service, O'Connor and Associates.

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He protests thousands of property values annually, and believes values are up again this year.

The Harris County Appraisal District says those average values statistics are not quite ready yet for 2016, but there will likely be a trend in which values are not climbing quite as much on the west side and toward the Energy Corridor, said Jack Barnett of HCAD.

"Those homes were not increasing as much as those homes that were farther east of Houston," he said.

Go to HCAD.org if you would like to see the pattern of increases, decreases, or whether home values are holding steady where you live in Harris County.