CAD: Home values rising

By Anita Miller
News Editor

May 10, 2008 08:48 pm

— The growth boom is still very much on in Hays County, and property owners will be finding that out when they receive their preliminary appraisal notices, most of which will reflect an increase in value.
That’s according to David Valle of the Hays Central Appraisal District, which mailed out 69,920 notices on Friday.
“The Hays County market is still strong based on what we’ve seen throughout the whole year of 2007,” Valle said. “We’re still seeing household demand for homes in the county.”
In particular, Dripping Springs is seeing an increase in demand, Valle said, much of it driven by the approximately 20,000 jobs recently added in Travis County.
“It’s kind of pushing up home prices a little bit, but we’re not seeing the double-digit increases you see in Travis County.”
Valle said the average home value in the Dripping Springs ISD increased “about 9.5 percent” to $291,370 for 2008; compared to about nine percent in the Wimberley ISD ($198,737 for 200); six percent in the Hays ISD (to $144,400 for 2008); 4.9 percent in the San Marcos CISD (to $135,176 for 2008).
For the city of San Marcos, the average home value increased between five and six percent to $121,960 for 2008; in Kyle the increase was three to four percent to $137,425 for 2008.
Valle said the total market was up 11 percent; though he cautioned those figures are still preliminary and subject to protest.
Valle said Hays County’s total preliminary market value is $13.22 billion this year, up from $11.63 billion in 2007.
Commercial and industrial property county-wide increased 11 percent from $1.005 billion in 2007 to $1.12 billion this year. Residential multi-family property, county-wide, went up about 5.31 percent from $471 million in 2007 to $496 million in 2008.
In an area that speaks directly to future growth, Valle said the total value of vacant platted tracts went up by 23 percent this year.
“That means we’re getting a lot of new subdivisions county-wide. A lot of developers are filing plats out there, cutting up acreage and subdividing it,” he said.
Property owners who wish to protest their appraised value have until June 9 to appeal to the Appraisal Review Board. Property owners can file a protest at the Hays CAD office at 21001 IH-35 North in Kyle; call 268-2522; or visit www.hayscad.com.