It belongs to the owner, not the house — so it does not transfer at closing. Texas allows a late filing up to two years back. That makes every past client someone you can contact with good news, for free.
Check any address FREE →You already know the hard part of this business is not the closing — it is staying useful to the people you closed for, two and three years later, without sounding like you want something. This page is one answer to that, and it costs you nothing to use. It is written for agents, not for homeowners: the mechanics stated precisely, the deadlines with the statute behind each one, a short block of text you can paste straight into an email or a post to your past buyers, and an offer to run the real HCAD count for any neighbourhood you sell in.
Last updated: August 2, 2026 · Harris County, Texas.
HCAD explains its own process plainly: in the first quarter of each year it builds a list of properties that carried a homestead exemption in the prior year and were sold during that year, cancels the previous owner's exemption as of January 1 of the new year, and mails the new owner an application form.
There is one exception worth knowing, because it applies to most mid-year buyers. Under Texas Tax Code §11.42(f), a buyer who acquires the home after January 1 may receive the general residence homestead exemption for the applicable portion of that same tax year immediately on qualifying — but only if the seller had not already received that exemption for the year. Either way, the buyer still has to apply. Silence is not approval.
The same logic catches people again in year two. The 10% appraisal cap under §23.23 is not a property of the house either — it starts in the second year the new owner holds the homestead exemption. A home that had been capped for years under a long-time seller can reset close to market value the year after the sale, which is exactly why the second-year bill so often surprises a buyer more than the first. Our first-year guide for new homeowners walks a buyer through the whole sequence.
Written to be forwarded as-is. It names no company, asks for nothing, and points only at HCAD and the Comptroller. Edit it however you like; it is yours.
Two things that block deliberately does not do: it never tells the recipient they are overpaying, and it never promises a saving. HCAD decides. Sending something that overstates either would land back on you, not on us.
| What | The rule | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Does it transfer at closing? | No. HCAD cancels the seller's exemption as of January 1 of the year after the sale and mails the buyer an application. | HCAD, Property Tax Exemptions for Homeowners |
| Mid-year purchase | The buyer may receive the general homestead exemption for the applicable portion of that same year on qualifying — unless the seller already received it for the year. | Tax Code §11.42(f) |
| Filing window | January 1 – April 30. The statute words the deadline as "before May 1." | Tax Code §11.43(d) |
| Missed it? | A late application is allowed up to two years after the delinquency date for the taxes on the homestead. If approved, §11.431(b) provides for a refund — notified within 30 days, paid within 60, with no separate refund application. | Tax Code §11.431 |
| Cost to file | Free. HCAD Form 11.13; the Comptroller publishes the identical state Form 50-114. Online, by mail, or in person. | HCAD · Texas Comptroller |
| The trap that gets applications rejected | The chief appraiser may not approve a homestead exemption unless the address on the Texas driver's license or ID submitted matches the property. Tell your buyers to update DPS first. | Tax Code §11.43(n) (waivers in (p)) |
| The 10% cap | Starts in the buyer's second year holding the exemption — it does not carry over from the seller. | Tax Code §23.23 |
| Protest deadline (different thing, different clock) | May 15, or 30 days after the notice of appraised value was delivered — whichever is LATER. Never a bare "May 15": a late notice moves the deadline with it. | Tax Code §41.44(a) |
Agents get asked this the moment they raise it, so here is a real number rather than a round one. Worked unit by unit from HCAD's own published jurisdiction tax-rate and exemption file, a $285,000 home inside the City of Houston and Houston ISD pays about $2,430 a year less with the general residence homestead exemption in place than without it.
HCAD's appraisal roll is a public record. Counting single-family homes in a given area that currently show no homestead exemption on record is straightforward once you have the roll loaded — and it is a number nobody else publishes at neighbourhood level. Countywide, the count is 328,310 of 1,157,293 single-family homes, or 28.4%. Published examples, each with its own page and its own method stated:
| Area | Single-family homes counted | No homestead exemption on record |
|---|---|---|
| Westbury | 5,977 | 1,184 (19.8%) |
| Katy | 69,762 | 16,943 (24.3%) |
| All of Harris County | 328,310 of 1,157,293 (28.4%) | |
Thirteen areas are published on the Harris County exemption-gap page, with the counting method written out in full — including which areas are grouped by the owner's HCAD mailing city and which use the mailing ZIP as a proxy, and why a ZIP proxy is more likely to under-count than over-count.
That caveat is the reason this is usable in your business at all. "Some of these owners may not have filed yet, and it is free to check" is true and helpful. "These people are overpaying" is neither, and it is the kind of claim that comes back at the person who said it.
Every figure on this page and on the area pages is free for you to use — in a blog post, a newsletter, a listing presentation, a class, a social post, whatever is useful. A credit link back is welcome and completely optional. Nothing is conditional on it.
If you do link, the plain URL is fine. If you would rather link to something more specific than this page, the exemption-gap page is the one with the method and the county-wide count, and the individual area pages are the ones with a figure your own clients will recognise.
That is a judgement call for you and your brokerage, and this page is not compliance advice. What we can say is that the information is accurate, publicly sourced, and free — it asks nothing of the recipient and points them at HCAD's own forms.
Yes, and you do not need permission. There is also nothing wrong with sending them only the paste block above and never mentioning us — it names no company on purpose.
Then they see the exemption on their HCAD account and there is nothing to do. That is a perfectly good outcome for a message like this: it confirms they are fine.
No. A residence homestead exemption requires the home be the owner's principal residence, so a rental or a second home does not qualify. That is one of the reasons a "no exemption on record" count is never a list of people paying too much.
Not currently. The pages stay as they are so the sourcing and the disclaimers travel with the numbers. You are welcome to write your own version from the statutes cited here.
No. A credit link is welcome and optional, and we are not offering payment, referrals or anything of value for one.
Last updated: August 2, 2026. Sources: Harris Central Appraisal District, First Time Property Owner and Property Tax Exemptions for Homeowners (see "Selling or Buying a Home with an Existing Homestead Exemption" and "Homestead Cap"); HCAD PDATA property downloads — the public appraisal roll behind the area counts, and the jurisdiction tax-rate and exemption file (June 2026 download) behind the annual-value figure; Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Property Tax Exemptions and Form 50-114. Texas Tax Code §11.13(b) and §11.13(n) ($140,000 school-district homestead exemption; 20% local option), §11.42(f) (mid-year buyer), §11.43(d) and §11.43(n)/(p) (filing deadline; driver's-license address match and its waivers), §11.431 (late filing up to two years after the delinquency date, and the refund mechanism), §23.23 (10% appraisal cap), §41.44(a) (protest deadline); Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1152 (property tax consultant registration). Area counts are as published on this site's own area pages and exemption-gap page (31 July 2026), from HCAD's public roll limited to single-family residences with a real street address. This page is general information for real estate professionals and Harris County homeowners — not legal, tax, financial or compliance advice, and not representation of any property owner. Deadlines and amounts change by legislative session; verify with HCAD or the Comptroller before acting.