Amounts and rules on this page are as of October 30, 2026, for tax year 2026, and the page is updated when an amount or rule changes.

The 2026 amounts come from the November 2025 constitutional amendments

The $140,000 school exemption and the $60,000 additional amount for owners 65 or older or disabled took effect for the 2025 tax year, after Texas voters approved Propositions 13 and 11 on November 4, 2025, and they are the amounts in Tax Code section 11.13 for 2026.

What changed, and where it is written

Proposition 13 was S.J.R. 2, which raised the school homestead exemption in Article VIII, Section 1-b(c) of the Texas Constitution “from $100,000 to $140,000.” Proposition 11 was S.J.R. 85, which raised the limit on the additional exemption for owners 65 or older or disabled from $10,000 to $60,000. Each takes effect “for the tax year beginning January 1, 2025.” S.B. 4 wrote the $140,000 into Tax Code section 11.13(b) and S.B. 23 wrote the $60,000 into section 11.13(c), and the Secretary of State’s election results show both propositions approved. The Texas Comptroller states the same amounts.

What a county, city or district may add

Any taxing unit may add a local option exemption of up to 20% of a homestead’s appraised value, never less than $5,000, if its governing body adopts it before July 1 (section 11.13(n)). Any unit may also adopt an exemption of at least $3,000 for owners 65 or older or disabled (sections 11.13(d) and (e)). A school district, city or county that had a percentage exemption for 2022 may not reduce or repeal it through December 31, 2027 (section 11.13(n-1)). Each unit decides for itself, so one house can carry several different exemption amounts on one tax bill.

Who qualifies for a homestead exemption

You qualify for the general exemption if you own the home and live in it as your principal residence on January 1 of the tax year, with one exception for the year you buy.

Ownership and principal residence

Section 11.13(j) defines a residence homestead as a structure owned by one or more individuals, designed and used as a residence, and occupied as the owner’s principal residence, with up to 20 acres of land used with it. Ownership through a qualifying trust counts when the trust lets the trustor or a beneficiary live there. A person may receive the exemption on only one homestead in a year (section 11.13(h)), and the application states that you claim no homestead exemption on another home in Texas or outside it (section 11.43(j)).

The January 1 rule, and the year you buy

Eligibility for most exemptions is fixed by your situation on January 1 (section 11.42(a)). A buyer who closes after January 1 may receive the general exemption for the rest of that year only “if the preceding owner did not receive the same exemption for that tax year” (section 11.42(f)), as with a newly built house or a home the seller did not claim. In an ordinary resale the seller’s general exemption stays on the house all year, and the buyer’s own exemption starts the next January 1. A buyer who qualifies under section 11.42(f) must apply before the first anniversary of the purchase (section 11.43(d)). The age 65 and disability exemptions apply to the whole tax year in which the owner qualifies, so a buyer who is 65 or older or disabled can receive one for the purchase year (sections 11.42(c) and 26.112).

The ID and address match

The application must include a copy of your Texas driver’s license or state-issued ID, and HCAD may not grant the exemption unless its address matches the home (sections 11.43(j) and (n)). Update your license before you file. Narrow waivers exist, including for active duty military members and their spouses.

What the exemption saves in Harris County

The exemption lowers your taxable value separately for each unit that taxes your home. The table shows the 2026 exemptions for the units that tax River Oaks, Tanglewood, West University Place, Spring Branch and the Memorial Villages; West University Place homes, for example, are taxed by Houston ISD.

Percentages apply to the appraised value, and the age 65 and disability amounts are added to the general exemption. Other units that tax these homes, such as the community college district, set their own exemptions, and HCAD lists every unit’s exemptions on each property account.

A hypothetical example

Take a hypothetical home with a $1,000,000 appraised value, first in the City of Houston and Houston ISD, then in Bunker Hill Village and Spring Branch ISD, applying only the exemptions in the table.

At the 2026 adopted school tax rates, $0.8421 per $100 in Houston ISD and $1.0563 per $100 in Spring Branch ISD, the $340,000 removed from the school value is worth about $2,863 and $3,591 a year to an owner under 65; every unit’s rate is in our guide to Houston property taxes, village by village.

The 10% homestead cap limits appraised value, not your tax bill

Once your homestead exemption is in place, HCAD may not raise your home’s appraised value by more than 10% a year over the prior year’s appraised value, plus the market value of new improvements (Tax Code section 23.23). The cap starts on January 1 of the tax year after the first year you qualify, so HCAD describes it as applying “beginning in the second year you have a homestead exemption.”

What the cap does and does not do

The cap limits the value your taxes are calculated on, not tax rates, so a capped home’s bill can still rise more than 10%. New improvements, such as an addition, are added at market value; repairs and ordinary maintenance are not new improvements. A buyer with a purchase-year exemption under section 11.42(f) is treated as first qualifying on the following January 1, so the cap starts a year after that (section 23.23(c-1)).

What resets the cap

The cap ends on January 1 of the first tax year in which neither the owner who had it nor that owner’s spouse or surviving spouse qualifies (section 23.23(c)), so a sale ends it. The buyer’s value can return to full market value the next year, and the buyer’s own cap starts a year after that, which is why HCAD warns that taxes on a long-capped home “may increase substantially in the year following the year you purchase it.”

Owners 65 or older or disabled get a larger exemption and a school tax ceiling

An owner 65 or older or disabled receives the additional $60,000 school exemption and any local amount, and the home’s school tax is frozen at the first qualifying year’s amount.

The additional exemption

“Disabled” means under a disability for purposes of Social Security disability insurance benefits (section 11.13(m)). A person who is both may not receive both exemptions from the same taxing unit in the same year but may choose either (section 11.13(h)). The age 65 exemption applies to the whole year in which you turn 65 (section 11.42(c)), and you have until the first anniversary of qualifying to apply (section 11.43(k)), which HCAD explains as “until your 66th birthday.” If HCAD already has your birth date from an earlier homestead application, it adds the exemption without a new one (section 11.43(m)). A surviving spouse who was 55 or older when the owner died keeps a local unit’s age 65 exemption on the same home (section 11.13(q)), and HCAD said on December 19, 2025 that it extends the $60,000 school amount to them too.

The school tax ceiling

Under section 11.26, a school district may not raise the total school tax on the homestead of an owner 65 or older or disabled above the amount it imposed in the first year the owner qualified. The ceiling rises only for new improvements, not repairs, and it expires when no qualifying owner uses the house as a homestead on January 1. Section 11.26 also lowers the frozen amount when the State raises the school exemptions or lowers the district’s maximum compressed rate. A surviving spouse who was 55 or older keeps the ceiling (section 11.26(i)).

Moving the ceiling to a new home

The school ceiling can follow you to another Texas homestead as a percentage, not a dollar amount: the new home’s school tax is limited by the same proportion the ceiling saved on the old one (section 11.26(g)). The former home’s appraisal district owes you a certificate with the figures (section 11.26(h)); HCAD’s version is its Tax Ceiling Transfer Certificate. A county, city or junior college district may adopt its own ceiling under section 11.261, which transfers only within the same county, city or district; ask HCAD whether one applies to yours.

Deferral and quarter payments

An owner 65 or older or disabled may defer the homestead’s taxes by filing an affidavit with HCAD (section 33.06). Deferral postpones the taxes; it does not cancel them. The lien stays, interest accrues at 5% a year, and HCAD says the balance is payable within 180 days after the owner no longer owns and occupies the home. Any homeowner whose appraised value rises more than 5% in a year, excluding new improvements, may defer the tax on the excess, at 8% interest (section 33.065). The Harris County Tax Office also offers four equal installments to owners with an over-65 or disabled exemption who ask, with the first payment, by January 31.

How to file for the homestead exemption with HCAD

You file once with the Harris Central Appraisal District, not the Comptroller or a taxing unit, between January 1 and April 30, and the exemption then renews on its own while you own and live in the home.

Three ways to file

• The HCAD Info and Exemptions mobile app, with your date of occupancy and your Texas driver’s license.
• HCAD’s online Form 11.13, for the general, over-65, disability and over-55 surviving spouse exemptions, on the HCAD forms page.
• The Comptroller’s Form 50-114, Residence Homestead Exemption Application (Rev. 02-26/39), filed with HCAD.

Attach a copy of each owner’s driver’s license or state ID showing the home’s address. An owner applying as disabled adds proof of disability, and an heir not named on a recorded deed adds the affidavits listed on Forms 50-114 and 50-114-A. If HCAD asks for more information, Form 50-114 gives you 30 days to respond. HCAD’s number is 713-957-7800.

Deadlines and the late window

The deadline is before May 1 (section 11.43(d)), which HCAD and Form 50-114 state as April 30; HCAD may extend it once, by up to 60 days, for good cause. A late application must still be accepted within two years after the taxes for that year become delinquent (section 11.431), “usually February 1 of the year following the tax year,” as HCAD puts it. If it is approved after you paid, the collector refunds the tax on the exempted value without a separate request.

After the exemption is granted

You do not reapply each year (section 11.43(c)). HCAD may require a new application only when it has reason to believe you no longer qualify and tells you why (section 11.43(c-1)), and it reviews every homestead at least once every five tax years. HCAD also mails a postcard each January to confirm occupancy; if it comes back undeliverable, HCAD removes the exemption, so keep your mailing address current.

When you move, rent, rebuild or sell

The exemption belongs to the owner who lives in the home, not to the house: it ends when you sell or stop living there, and each new owner files in their own name.

Moving out or renting the house

Section 11.13(l) keeps the exemption through an absence of less than two years if you intend to return and establish no other principal residence, and through military service or a stay in a care facility. Renting out part of the house does not end its homestead status, though the exemption does not apply to a part used mainly for purposes incompatible with your own residence (section 11.13(k)). If you plan to rent the whole house while away, ask HCAD first. Notify HCAD in writing before May 1 after your entitlement ends (section 11.43(g)); HCAD has a Request to Remove Homestead Exemption form. An exemption allowed in error can be added back to the roll for up to five prior years (section 11.43(i)).

Tearing down to rebuild

Section 11.135, the rule that continues the exemption while a replacement house is built, applies when the house was made uninhabitable or unusable “by a casualty or by wind or water damage.” A voluntary teardown is not on that list, and section 11.13(j) defines a residence homestead as a structure the owner occupies, together with its land. Eligibility is set on January 1 (section 11.42(a)), so you can qualify again for the first tax year in which you occupy the new house on January 1, and a tax year without the exemption ends the 10% cap (section 23.23(c)). Confirm with HCAD before you demolish. Our guide to selling a home as a lot or teardown to a builder covers the sale side.

The year you sell

A general homestead exemption stays on the house for the entire year of the sale (section 26.10(a) excludes it from proration), and HCAD cancels it as of the next January 1 and mails the new owner an application. An age 65 or disabled exemption also stays all year unless the seller qualifies a different home for one in the same year; then the sold home’s tax reflects it only for the part of the year the seller owned the home (sections 26.10(b) and 26.112), unless a buyer who is also 65 or older or disabled applies in the buyer’s own right. Disabled veteran and surviving spouse exemptions have their own proration rules (sections 26.10(b) and (c)). Taxes are estimated and prorated at closing; see our guides to seller closing costs and selling a home in River Oaks, Tanglewood, West University or the Memorial Villages.

The deadline and steps to protest HCAD’s value are in our property tax guide.

Frequently asked questions