A homestead exemption can lower your property tax bill

Live in the house as your main home and a chunk of its value comes off the books before the tax is figured. If you owned and lived in it on January 1, the exemption covers that whole year. Buy after January 1 and you can still pick it up for the rest of the year — but only if the prior owner didn't already claim the homestead for that year. One homestead per person in Texas, no more. The application goes to the Nueces Central Appraisal District, the office that sets your value, not the tax office that mails the bill.

The general state exemption knocks down the value used to calculate what you owe. Homeowners who are 65 or older, and those who are disabled, stack extra exemptions on top of that. The dollar amounts and filing deadlines shift from one year to the next, so the figure you heard from a neighbor two years ago may not be the figure that applies now. The appraisal district's forms page and the Comptroller's exemptions page both carry the live numbers, and the homestead form itself is short.