Should I Appeal My Property Taxes This Year?
Reads the figures off a homeowner's assessment notice and returns a plain yes-or-no recommendation on whether to appeal this year, with the reasoning shown. The homeowner supplies their state, the assessed value on the notice, the prior-year value, an independent market estimate, any recent comparable sales, what they paid for the home and when, any known errors in the county's record, and the filing deadline. The tool compares the assessed value against the supporting evidence, estimates the rough first-year savings if the value were corrected, and weighs that against the effort and the deadline. Critically, in the handful of states where a homeowner-initiated appeal can result in a HIGHER assessment, it flags that upward risk before recommending a filing - because in those states a weak case is not merely a waste of time, it can backfire.
Example
Input: State: Texas; assessed value $480,000; prior-year value $430,000; independent market estimate ~$435,000; recent comps: two homes on the same block sold in the last four months at $428,000 and $441,000, both similar size; purchase price $432,000 (bought 14 months ago); known record errors: county lists 2,400 sf but the home is 2,180 sf; deadline May 15.
Output: YES - this looks like a strong case worth appealing. Your notice jumped from $430,000 to $480,000, but every independent signal points lower: a market estimate near $435,000, two same-block sales at $428,000 and $441,000, and your own $432,000 purchase just 14 months ago. On top of that, the county has your home at 2,400 square feet when it is actually 2,180 - a roughly 9% overstatement of size that directly inflates value and is one of the easiest errors to prove. If the value were corrected to about $435,000, that is roughly a 9% reduction in assessed value, which translates to roughly a 9% cut in the portion of your tax bill driven by this property's value (apply your own local rate to estimate the dollars). The May 15 deadline gives you time to file. Texas does not allow the appraisal review board to raise your value on a homeowner-initiated protest, so there is no downside risk to filing here. Recommendation: gather the square-footage documentation and the two comparable sales, and file by May 15 - confirm the exact procedure on your county appraisal district's official page first.
Input: State: Washington; assessed value $610,000; prior-year value $585,000; independent market estimate ~$615,000; recent comps: nearby sales cluster between $605,000 and $640,000; purchase price $600,000 (bought 3 years ago); known record errors: none found; deadline 60 days from notice.
Output: NO - or at least not without much stronger evidence. Your assessed value of $610,000 sits right inside the range your own comparable sales suggest ($605,000-$640,000) and is actually slightly below the $615,000 market estimate. There is no obvious record error to correct, and the value has not run away from the market. The rough savings from any reduction would be small, and here the deadline math matters less than the risk: in Washington, the county Board of Equalization can raise your assessed value during an appeal, not just lower it (RCW 84.48.010). Walking in with a borderline case could leave you worse off than if you had done nothing. Recommendation: do not appeal this year on these facts. If you later find a genuine over-assessment - a real comp well below $610,000 or a record error - reassess then, file within 60 days of the notice, and bring solid evidence because the board can move the value in either direction.
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