If you own a home in Texas, there’s a good chance you’re already paying less in school property taxes this year than you were two years ago — whether you’ve noticed it yet or not.
Texas voters approved a sweeping property tax relief package in a November 2025 constitutional election, and the resulting changes are now fully in effect for 2026. The centerpiece, created by Senate Bill 4, raised the mandatory general homestead exemption for school district taxes from $100,000 to $140,000 — meaning a home appraised at $350,000 is now taxed, for school purposes, as though it were worth only $210,000. At a typical school tax rate, that alone works out to roughly $1,200 or more in annual savings for the average homeowner, according to multiple real-estate and tax-guide breakdowns of the new law.
Homeowners 65 or older, along with those who qualify as disabled, get an even bigger break. Senate Bill 23 raised their additional school-district exemption from $10,000 to $60,000, stacking on top of the general exemption for a combined $200,000 reduction in taxable value. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, one of the legislation’s authors, has estimated the average over-65 homeowner will save just under $951 a year from the combined changes — with savings running higher still in high-tax counties like Harris, where effective property tax rates often run between 2.0% and 2.5%.
A separate provision, House Bill 8, layered a one-year school tax rate compression of just over 3 cents per $100 of assessed value on top of the exemption increases, adding a few hundred additional dollars in savings for many homeowners on top of the exemption itself. Disabled veterans continue to receive some of the largest breaks available under Texas law — veterans rated 100% disabled by the VA pay no property tax at all on their primary residence, while those with partial ratings can claim exemptions ranging from roughly $5,000 to $12,000 depending on their disability percentage.
None of these exemptions apply automatically. Homeowners must file a one-time application with their county appraisal district, and the property address on a Texas driver’s license or state ID typically has to match the homestead before the district will approve it. The general filing deadline in most counties falls around April 30 each year, though late filers can often still claim the exemption retroactively for a limited window. It’s also worth noting the exemption only covers school district taxes — county, city, and special-district taxes (MUDs, emergency service districts, and similar entities) each set their own optional homestead exemptions separately, so a homeowner’s total savings can vary significantly by ZIP code even at an identical appraised value.
What it means locally: any Texas homeowner who bought before 2025 and hasn’t checked their most recent appraisal notice against these new exemption amounts is likely leaving money on the table — and first-time buyers closing in 2026 should confirm the homestead exemption is filed in their name as soon as they move in, rather than waiting for the following spring’s deadline.
Sources: Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, homestead exemption guidance; Ownwell, “Texas Property Tax Relief Changes for 2026”; Harbert Group, 2026 Texas Homestead Exemption & Property Tax Guide; Texas Senate Bill 4 and Senate Bill 23 (89th Legislature).
