Some Collin County Residents Shocked By Property Appraisals
COLLIN COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - There was an unexpected and unwelcome surprise in the mail this week for a lot of Collin County property owners. To put it mildly, the notices confirmed that property values are skyrocketing.
The little blue forms coming in the mail are making a lot of homeowners 'blue' in one particular west Plano neighborhood.
The average appraised value of a home is up 7-percent, nearly double the average increase last year.
Julie Hedrick waters new landscaping to improve the look of her Plano home of 20 years. But her efforts may have the house looking too good, after receiving her latest property appraisal.
Hedrick and her husband were startled to see that after one year the value of their home increased by $20,000.
"This jump [which is] getting close to 10-percent is a pretty big one," she said.
The office of the Collin County Appraisal District is bracing for a lot of protest forms from owners of some of the 236,000 properties that increased in value. Of those, some 81,000 jumped by more than 10-percent.
At least four Collin County cities, Allen, McKinney, Plano and Frisco, had property values jump by 10-percent or more.
Bo Daffin, the county's chief appraiser, blames the demand for housing for the spike.
"It's supply and demand on housing and quality of life. The job of an appraiser is to try to determine what buyers and sellers are doing in a market and we're seeing significant changes."
The Hedrick's are planning to protest their appraisal, which is the largest they've seen in more than 15 years.
"I don't know that people have seen an upswing in incomes to offset what you're paying for property taxes," Julie Hedrick wondered.
Meanwhile, Daffin says he's received 1,800 protests already, which is a high number considering homeowners were just notified of the new rates in the past few days.
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