Hundreds of thousands of potentially eligible Texas homeowners aren’t claiming their property tax savings

When the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge opened more than a decade ago, it connected downtown Dallas to West Dallas, one of the poorest parts of the city. With the new bridge came a spike of new development interest in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood, once largely cut off from the city’s urban core.

As that newfound interest mounted, so did property tax bills. As homeowners in the neighborhood increasingly worried about their climbing tax bills, community advocates came to a realization: many hadn’t claimed a benefit that might have helped keep those bills in check.

That benefit: the homestead exemption, which shaves at least $140,000 off the value that school districts tax and triggers more property tax savings if cities and counties offer their own exemptions.

The exemption results in potentially thousands of dollars saved in taxes annually while unlocking a number of other benefits intended to keep bills from rising too quickly.

Without claiming the exemption, many West Dallas homeowners risked being priced out of the neighborhood and displaced, said Johana Miranda, who runs the Homestead Preservation Center at the Wesley-Rankin Community Center, a nonprofit in West Dallas.

“It comes down to being able to afford another year of taxes,” Miranda said. “It does make a huge impact on the decision of staying or having to leave.”

West Dallas homeowners aren’t alone in potentially missing out. As homeowners receive their tax bills this month, hundreds of thousands of Texas homeowners who may be eligible for the homestead exemption aren’t claiming the benefit, policy experts and appraisal districts told The Texas Tribune.

In Dallas County, that estimate was 57,000 households — who have left nearly $310 million on the table by not claiming the exemption, according to research by the Child Poverty Action Lab, a Dallas-based nonprofit. In Travis and Bexar counties, roughly 60,000 homeowners in each county may unduly be going without the exemption, appraisal districts told the Tribune. Some 113,000 Harris County homeowners could be eligible but aren’t claiming the exemption, the appraisal district said.

That’s about 1 in 5 households in Travis County who might be eligible but don’t have the exemption, and roughly 1 in 10 in the others. Appraisal districts don’t have a precise number because of several factors, including the fact that appraisal districts don’t directly identify who’s eligible, just who might be.

Without a homestead exemption, the owner of a median priced home in Dallas County could expect to pay $7,062 in property taxes last year, according to another report from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law’s Housing Policy Clinic and the Child Poverty Action Lab. With a homestead exemption, they would have paid $4,573 — resulting in 35% savings on their tax bill. An older homeowner’s bill would have come out to $1,872, thanks to additional breaks for homeowners over the age of 65.

Homeowners don’t automatically receive the break and not everyone knows about the exemption, policy experts, nonprofit workers and appraisal district officials said.

To get the exemption, homeowners have to fill out an application, prove they own the home and that it is their primary residence, among other requirements. But the process can be complicated, especially for those who encounter language barriers or face other complications when proving they own their home. That’s especially true for first-time buyers or heirs who inherit their homes who are not using a lender or real estate agent to complete the process, said Heather Way, who heads the Housing Policy Clinic.

“How are you supposed to even know that this exemption exists if your real estate agent or mortgage broker hasn’t told you about the exemption?” Way said.

Disparities in who claims their homestead exemption falls along racial and wealth lines. Homeowners in Hispanic and Black neighborhoods in Dallas County claim the exemption at lower rates than those in predominantly white and Asian neighborhoods, the Child Poverty Action Lab said. A similar disparity exists between poorer and wealthier neighborhoods, researchers found.

Local governments, appraisal districts and nonprofits have combed through records to try to reach individual homeowners to implore them to claim the break. State lawmakers have chipped away at barriers to getting the homestead exemption, but policy experts have suggested a litany of ways that lawmakers could still act.

At the same time, the number of homeowners who have claimed the exemption has grown, said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who authored measures in recent years to increase the exemption amount offered by school districts. The comptroller’s office reports some 6.28 million Texas homeowners had an exemption in 2025, which Bettencourt says is 580,000 more than two years prior.

Bettencourt acknowledged an education gap around the homestead exemption but said it’s unlikely that all eligible homeowners will ever claim it, though he wants them to. The main way the state could increase awareness of the homestead exemption is to keep increasing it, he argued.

“The higher the homestead exemption, the more likely people are to notice it,” Bettencourt said.

What’s behind the gap

In Dallas County, Child Poverty Action Lab researchers found that homeowners in wealthier neighborhoods claim the homestead exemption at higher rates than those in poorer neighborhoods. Of the 57,000 estimated Dallas County properties that could be eligible for the break, some 40,000 properties sit in low-income areas.

In Travis County, there are gaps in poorer places like Del Valle and Manor than in wealthier neighborhoods like Hyde Park or Westlake, said Cynthia Martinez, chief strategy officer at the Travis Central Appraisal District.

“People with means are more likely to know what a homestead exemption is right off the bat,” Martinez said.

One possible explanation for the disparity: wealthier people often employ property tax consultants who can inform them about the homestead exemption and help them apply for it, said Ashley Flores, senior director at Child Poverty Action Lab. But hiring a tax consultant may be too expensive for lower-income homeowners, she said.

Applying by oneself can be difficult. It’s not always easy to find the homestead exemption application on an appraisal district’s website and it contains jargon that might be intimidating for a homeowner to fill out. Many appraisal districts allow homeowners to apply online, but others may not.

Language barriers persist. Not every appraisal district provides the application in Spanish. The Texas comptroller’s office provides an application in Spanish, but even when there is a translation, property tax jargon can be tough to understand, Miranda said.