25,029 single-family homes in the 77055, 77080 and 77043 ZIP areas, how many have no homestead exemption on record, and one of the widest appraisal spreads in Harris County.
Check your home FREE →| What HCAD's records show | Spring Branch | All of Harris County |
|---|---|---|
| Single-family homes counted (state class A1) | 25,029 | 1,157,293 |
| No homestead exemption on record | 5,827 (23.3%) | 328,310 (28.4%) |
| Median appraised value | $401,980 | $279,813 |
| Median appraised value per square foot | $159.09 | $111.97 |
| Middle 80% of homes, per square foot | $109.23 – $273.90 | $84.36 – $184.69 |
| Median year of the primary structure | 1976 | 1990 |
Against the county: 23.3% here versus 28.4% across all of Harris County (328,310 of 1,157,293 single-family homes) — Spring Branch runs 5.1 percentage points below the county rate.
| ZIP area | Homes | No homestead on record | Median value | Median $/sqft |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 77055 | 9,731 | 2,368 (24.3%) | $613,186 | $206.10 |
| 77080 | 8,649 | 1,917 (22.2%) | $349,937 | $145.70 |
| 77043 | 6,649 | 1,542 (23.2%) | $386,243 | $146.29 |
| All three ZIP areas combined | 25,029 | 5,827 (23.3%) | $401,980 | $159.09 |
Across the three Spring Branch ZIP areas, 5,827 of 25,029 homes — 23.3% — have no homestead exemption on record, against the county's 28.4%. Because the ZIP proxy used here systematically under-counts rental-owned homes (a landlord's mail goes to the landlord's own address, not the rental's), the true share for Spring Branch is more likely to be higher than 23.3% than lower. That is a limitation stated plainly, not a result to lean on.
The spread is the real Spring Branch story. The middle 80% of these homes run $109.23 to $273.90 per square foot — a two-and-a-half-fold range — on a median primary structure year of 1976 and a median appraised value of $401,980. A 1970s median with a $274 upper decile is the signature of a rebuilding corridor: original mid-century houses and recent new builds sitting on the same blocks, on the same lot sizes, appraised at wildly different rates per square foot.
For a homeowner in an un-rebuilt house, that is exactly the setting an unequal-appraisal argument was written for. It also means your own ZIP matters: the table below shows 77055 running at $206.10 per square foot against $145.70 in 77080, and averaging the three together would hide that.
Spring Branch is wholly inside Harris County — it is a Houston neighbourhood west of Loop 610, not a separate city, so there is no county-line question to resolve. What there is instead is a measurement question, and it is set out in the method note above: HCAD's records carry no neighbourhood field, so this page uses the owner's mailing ZIP code as a proxy for location.
In a neighbourhood where houses are bought to be replaced, a growing share of the appraised value sits in the land rather than the structure. Your Notice of Appraised Value breaks those out separately, and it is worth reading which one moved. A land value driven up by teardown sales on your street is a different argument from an improvement value that ignores the age of your house — and the evidence is different too. The first is answered with comparable land, the second with condition and comparable improvements.
The homestead cap under §23.23 is also doing unusually heavy lifting here. Once the homestead exemption is on file, the appraised value used for taxes cannot rise more than 10% a year plus new improvements, however fast the market value on the notice climbs. In a corridor where surrounding sales are rising quickly, that cap is worth real money every year — and it exists only on accounts that carry the exemption.
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 a single line of free text with no ZIP attached. The only geographic field available is the owner's mailing ZIP, so this page uses 77055, 77080 and 77043 as a proxy and says so. It is not the Spring Branch boundary, and it under-counts homes owned by landlords who receive mail elsewhere.
Not automatically, but it does show up in land value, which HCAD lists separately from improvement value on your notice. Read which of the two moved before deciding what to argue. The middle 80% of homes in these ZIP areas are appraised between $109.23 and $273.90 per square foot — an unusually wide range that reflects exactly this mix of original and rebuilt houses.
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.