24,025 single-family homes in the 77072, 77099 and 77083 ZIP areas, how many have no homestead exemption on record, and how Alief compares with the rest of Harris County.
Check your home FREE →| What HCAD's records show | Alief | All of Harris County |
|---|---|---|
| Single-family homes counted (state class A1) | 24,025 | 1,157,293 |
| No homestead exemption on record | 6,299 (26.2%) | 328,310 (28.4%) |
| Median appraised value | $228,736 | $279,813 |
| Median appraised value per square foot | $101.37 | $111.97 |
| Middle 80% of homes, per square foot | $84.61 – $123.50 | $84.36 – $184.69 |
| Median year of the primary structure | 1979 | 1990 |
Against the county: 26.2% here versus 28.4% across all of Harris County (328,310 of 1,157,293 single-family homes) — Alief runs 2.2 percentage points below the county rate.
| ZIP area | Homes | No homestead on record | Median value | Median $/sqft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 77072 | 8,916 | 2,470 (27.7%) | $212,765 | $99.63 |
| 77099 | 6,490 | 1,664 (25.6%) | $223,886 | $99.74 |
| 77083 | 8,619 | 2,165 (25.1%) | $262,904 | $104.67 |
| All three ZIP areas combined | 24,025 | 6,299 (26.2%) | $228,736 | $101.37 |
Across the three Alief ZIP areas, 6,299 of 24,025 homes — 26.2% — have no homestead exemption on record, against 28.4% countywide. That is a little over two points below the county figure, and it comes with an important asterisk: the ZIP proxy used here drops homes whose owner receives mail elsewhere, which mostly means rentals. Since a rental is the largest legitimate reason a home has no homestead exemption, the real figure for the Alief area is likely higher than 26.2%.
The median Alief home is appraised at $228,736 — well below the county's $279,813 — at a median $101.37 per square foot, with the middle 80% between $84.61 and $123.50. The median primary structure dates to about 1979. That combination, a low value base on housing now around 45 years old, has one clear practical consequence: the flat exemption amounts matter more here than almost anywhere. $140,000 off school-district taxable value under §11.13(b) removes well over half the taxable value of a median Alief home for school purposes. The highest-value thing a homeowner in this area can do is confirm the exemption is actually on the account.
Alief is wholly inside Harris County — a Houston neighbourhood in the southwest of the city, not a separate municipality, so every account here is on HCAD's roll. The measurement caveat in the method note above is the one that matters: there is no neighbourhood field in HCAD's records, so this page uses owner mailing ZIP codes as a stand-in for location.
Two things about the Alief data are worth acting on rather than reading past.
First, back-filing. Under §11.431, HCAD must accept and decide a late residence homestead application filed up to two years after the delinquency date for those taxes — and under §11.431(b), if the tax was already paid, the collector refunds the difference without a separate refund application. In an area with high ownership turnover, a household that bought a few years ago and never filed may still be inside that window. It costs nothing to check.
Second, condition. On housing of this age, a protest supported by dated photographs, written repair estimates and contractor bids is a real argument that mass appraisal cannot make on its own. Upload that evidence through your owners.hcad.org account before the hearing date rather than bringing it with you.
There are three ways to file, and all three are held to that same deadline: online through iFile at owners.hcad.org, by mail, or in person at Harris Central Appraisal District, 13013 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040-6305. Online is the only route that connects to iSettle, HCAD's electronic settlement-offer process, which resolves a large share of protests without a hearing.
The full walkthrough lives in our free guides rather than being repeated on every area page: the complete Harris County protest guide, how to file online through HCAD iFile, and what actually happens at an ARB hearing. If the deadline has already passed, §41.44(b) late protests and the other remedies are covered honestly there, including what they do not cover.
Exemptions are separate from a protest, they are free to file, and they are not filed through iFile. For most households they are also the bigger number — a protest argues about value, an exemption takes value out of the tax base outright.
| Exemption | What it does | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| General residence homestead | $140,000 off the value your school district taxes, on a home you own and live in as your main residence | Tax Code §11.13(b) |
| Age 65 or older, or disabled | Another $60,000 off school-district value on top of the $140,000. From any one taxing unit you take the age-65 or the disability exemption — not both (§11.13(h)) | Tax Code §11.13(c) |
| Filing homestead late | A late residence homestead application must be accepted and decided if it is filed within two years of the delinquency date for those taxes; tax already paid is refunded without a separate application | Tax Code §11.431 |
| Filing disabled-veteran late | Disabled veterans get a far longer window — up to five years after the delinquency date | Tax Code §11.439 |
Full detail on each: the homestead exemption guide, the over-65 exemption and school tax ceiling, and the disabled-veteran exemptions.
Because HCAD's records have no neighbourhood field and no property-city field — the site address is one line of free text. The owner's mailing ZIP is the only geographic field available, so this page uses 77072, 77099 and 77083 and discloses it. It is a proxy for the Alief area, not its boundary, and it under-counts landlord-owned homes.
Possibly not. Tax Code §11.431 requires the chief appraiser to accept and decide a late residence homestead application filed not later than two years after the delinquency date for the taxes on that homestead, which generally reaches back about two years. If the tax was already paid, §11.431(b) has the collector refund the difference with no separate refund application. The application itself is free.
Texas Tax Code §41.44 sets it at May 15, or the 30th day after HCAD delivered your Notice of Appraised Value, whichever is LATER. It is not always May 15 — if your notice arrived late, the later date is the one that governs. You can file online through iFile at owners.hcad.org, by mail, or in person at Harris Central Appraisal District, 13013 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040-6305.
Yes. Checking what HCAD has on record for your home costs nothing and takes about a minute. Filing an exemption — homestead, over-65, disability, veteran, disaster — is also free: HCAD publishes the application as Form 11.13 and the Texas Comptroller publishes the identical form as 50-114, both at no charge. Anyone charging you a fee to file a homestead exemption is charging you for a free government form.
No. We are not attorneys and not tax agents, and we do not represent anyone before HCAD or the Appraisal Review Board. We prepare the forms and the comparable-property evidence; you file it yourself under your own account. iFile requires your own login tied to your own account number and PIN, so the protest stays on your own record.
Last updated: July 31, 2026. Property figures computed from Harris Central Appraisal District's public appraisal roll (single-family state class A1, vacant-lot records excluded), joined to HCAD's exemption records. Sources: Harris Central Appraisal District, hcad.org and owners.hcad.org; Texas Tax Code §41.44, §11.13, §11.431 and §11.439. This page is general information for Harris County homeowners, not legal or tax advice. Appraisal figures reflect the roll as loaded and change every year — verify your own account with HCAD before you rely on anything here.