A friend of mine has a home. It's market value is 280k. It has a beautiful pool with tons of "interior improvements." When he purchased the house it came with the pool. All the upgrades were done within the last 3 years. The tax assessor currently has the home valued at 205k. It doesn't acknowledge the pool or interior improvements.  

Ironically many homeowners jump at the opportunity to protest their taxes protesting that their home "isn't worth that much." When it comes time to sell we almost all agree that the tax records are WAY OFF and that the value of our homes are MUCH HIGHER!

As we all know the current state of the economy has many pieces to the puzzle that just don't fit together as well as they could. Poor spending, bad decisions, too much bureaucracy and so much, much more. Get the Government involved and your likely to see things get done slowly, poorly and without much logic. In my opinion of course.

Texas is a non disclosure state. This means that the value of your home is considered private information. Even if you get a letter in the mail demanding the value of your home you do not have to disclose it. The taxing authority has no real way of knowing exactly what you bought or sold your home for. Only licensed Real Estate Practitioners & licensed appraisers have the key to this information.

So here's my question. Do you think it would benefit our/your local economy to allow the taxing authority full access to the MLS? Nobody wants to pay more taxes and this definitely includes ME, but lets be honest about our system. If the correct values were reported, more revenue would become available for our politicians to spend. :::clearing throat::::

How can a taxing authority possibly provide a sensible, accurate and consistent revenue without the proper information?