Why does nobody talk about how much property taxes can jump after buying?

I was looking at a house in Austin last week that seemed affordable at $280k, but then I dug into the tax records and found the previous owner was paying $3,200 a year. The county website showed that after a sale, the assessed value can reset to the full purchase price, bumping taxes to nearly $5,800. So I'm stuck wondering: should I budget for that huge jump or hope it gets capped by something like Prop 123? On one hand, you get services like schools and roads, but on the other, that extra $2,600 a year could kill your monthly budget. Has anyone else nearly gotten blindsided by this or found a way to estimate it before closing?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrewt411mo ago

My buddy got smacked with a $3k jump on his first house.

loganburns1mo ago

I hear you on the "smacked with a $3k jump" thing, but honestly that's just part of buying right now. Property values have been climbing like crazy and taxes follow the market, so a jump that size isn't that wild for a first house these days. My buddy's appraisal came in way over what he expected and his payment went up too, but he still came out ahead when he sold two years later.

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