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Free Assessment · No credit card required · Data sourced from TCAD public records
Texas property tax protests are due May 15, or 30 days after your Notice of Appraised Value was mailed — whichever is later. Check the date printed on your notice for your specific deadline.
Median tax values in Travis County have run up roughly 45% over 7 years.
If the climb feels steep, it's because it has been. Protesting doesn't undo the past, but it does cap how aggressively the next round of increases starts.
Travis County encompasses Austin, where tech-driven in-migration produced one of the most volatile residential markets in the country. After rapid run-up years, recent cooling means many appraisals reflect prior-year peaks rather than current-year pricing — a setup that's tailor-made for a market-value protest. TCAD maintains records on 337,745 residential parcels with a median appraised value of $465,264 for the 2026 tax year (up from $473,718 in 2025).
The median Travis County home saw an appraised-value change of -1.2% from last tax year to this one. But medians hide the tail — the chart below shows the full distribution across TCAD's residential parcels.
The Travis County roll covers properties across Austin, Pflugerville, Manor, Lago Vista, and Leander, including well-known neighborhoods like Tarrytown, Westlake, Mueller, and Hyde Park.
Share of residential parcels in each year-over-year appraisal-value change bucket. Hover any bar for detail.
Tax-year medians for residential parcels.
Looking at recent sales versus appraised values, the median sale-to-appraisal ratio in Travis County is 1.02. That means the typical recent home sale closed above the CAD's appraised value, suggesting appraisals here have lagged the market overall — but individual mismatches in either direction still warrant a protest.
Our analysis draws on 11,321 recent residential sales in Travis County from the trailing 12 months. That's the comparable-sales pool we draw from when building your Full Report.
Data as of April 29, 2026.
The protest process in Travis County follows Texas state law plus TCAD's own administrative procedures. There are five steps that move most homeowners from "I think there's room for savings" to a confirmed reduction.
TCAD mails a Notice of Appraised Value (NOAV) to property owners each spring, typically by mid-April. The notice lists this year's appraised value alongside last year's. Your protest deadline is printed on the notice itself — Texas law sets the deadline at May 15 or 30 days after the notice is mailed, whichever is later.
Look at the appraised value and compare it to what your home would realistically sell for today. Mass appraisal models — the algorithms TCAD uses to value hundreds of thousands of parcels at once — routinely miss localized cooling, condition issues, and neighborhood-specific market shifts. If the appraised number is higher than what a buyer would actually pay, a protest is your opportunity to bring it down.
File online through TCAD's protest portal (linked from https://traviscad.org), by mail, or in person at 850 East Anderson Lane, Austin, TX 78752. Online filing is fastest. Texas recognizes two independent grounds — market value and unequal appraisal — and either may apply on its own, both, or neither. Knowing which grounds to elect requires real comparable-sales math and a statistical equity analysis against similarly-situated peers; checking the wrong box without evidence to back it just signals an unprepared protest. Our reports run that analysis on your specific property and tell you which grounds the data actually supports — and why.
Your case rests on the evidence you submit. Comparable sales of similar nearby homes (especially recent ones), an unequal-appraisal analysis showing your assessed value is higher than peers, and documented condition issues all move the needle. Many protests are won at this stage without the homeowner ever having to attend a hearing.
TCAD starts with an informal review where one of their appraisers offers a settlement based on your evidence. Accept it if it's fair. Reject it and your case goes to a formal Appraisal Review Board hearing — three private citizens who hear both sides and rule. Each side typically gets 5–7 minutes; emotional appeals don't move the panel, but clean evidence does.
Get a Free Assessment of your Travis County property in seconds. Enter your address:
Travis Central Appraisal District (commonly known as TCAD) is the public entity responsible for appraising every parcel in Travis County for ad valorem taxation. They aren't the entity that collects property taxes — that's the local tax assessor's office — but they are the entity whose appraised value drives your tax bill. The TCAD Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hears protests as a separate, independent body of citizens.
TCAD accepts online protest filings through its taxpayer portal. The portal is the fastest path; you'll need the property account number and an authentication code printed on your Notice of Appraised Value to log in. Mail and in-person filings are also accepted at the address above. Always confirm the current portal URL and account- authentication procedure on TCAD's own protest page.
Enter your Travis County address — we'll tell you whether your specific property is appraised higher than comparable peers, and whether a protest is likely to win:
Successful property tax protests are won on evidence — and most homeowners simply don't have the time to assemble professional-grade evidence themselves. That's the gap our reports fill.
We charge a flat $99 per year for our subscription (delivers a fresh report every protest season), or $179 for a single-year one-time report. The subscription pays for itself the first year for most homeowners, and there's no contingency fee — your savings are yours.
Texas property tax protests are due May 15 each year, or 30 days after your Notice of Appraised Value was mailed, whichever is later. The exact deadline for your property is printed on your notice. TCAD typically mails notices in mid-April. If you miss the deadline, you generally lose your right to protest for the year.
TCAD accepts protests online through their portal (linked from https://traviscad.org), by mail to 850 East Anderson Lane, Austin, TX 78752, or in person at the same address. Online filing is the fastest method and the one TCAD prefers. You'll need the property account number and an authentication code printed on your Notice of Appraised Value.
The strongest evidence is recent sales of comparable nearby homes, a statistical equity analysis comparing your assessed value to similar peers, and documented condition issues (foundation cracks, roof age, deferred maintenance) that the mass-appraisal model can't see. Most successful protests rely on comparable-sales evidence — exactly the data our reports compile and present in the format the appraisal district expects.
Yes. A flat year-over-year value doesn't mean your assessment is correct. Property values in many Travis County neighborhoods have shifted in ways the mass-appraisal model lags. If your appraised value is higher than what a similar nearby home would actually sell for, the protest math still works in your favor.
The Appraisal Review Board issues a written Final Order of Determination. If the value still feels wrong, you have post-ARB options under Texas Tax Code: regular binding arbitration through a neutral third-party arbitrator, or an appeal in state district court. For most homeowners, the informal review and ARB hearing are where the case is won or lost.
Either path can work. TCAD reviews evidence the same way regardless of who submits it — the question is whether you have time to assemble comparable sales and an equity analysis yourself. Our reports do that work for you and present it in the format TCAD's appraisers and ARB panels expect. We don't represent you at the hearing; you submit our evidence packet and keep 100% of any reduction.
The statistics on this page are best-effort aggregates compiled from public county appraisal-district records as of the data extract date noted above. We update them periodically; we cannot guarantee they reflect the most recent appraisal-roll certifications, post-extract value changes, or supplemental records.
Always verify deadlines, portal availability, and contact details with TCAD's own protest page before filing.
The information on this page is provided for general educational purposes only. It is not property-tax advice, legal advice, or financial advice. Property tax law and appraisal-district procedures change; for guidance specific to your situation you should consult a qualified professional.
Looking up an address through this site or generating a free estimate does not create a customer relationship with Protesting Property Taxes. You become a customer of our service when you purchase a report.
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