Value My Home Off My Neighbors, Not the Flippers

Your appraisal district values your house off what other houses sold for.

Right now that can include the flip down the street, the rental, the house an investor bought sight unseen.

A bill filed in Austin today says: for your homestead, count your neighbors' homes, not theirs.

Plain English

House Bill 1104 was filed on November 12, 2026 by Rep. Diego Bernal. (FACT, bill history)

When an appraisal district uses comparable sales to set the market value of a homestead, the bill limits which sales can count. In a county with more than 50,000 people, a sale only counts as a comparable for a homestead if two things are true:

1. The seller had a homestead exemption on that property on the day it sold.
2. The sold property is in the same neighborhood as the home being appraised.

(FACT, HB 1104 as filed)

It applies to tax years starting on or after January 1, 2028. (FACT, bill text)

Why it matters

Every spring the notice shows up. The number went up again. You did not sell. You did not remodel. You still live there.

Somebody else's sale moved your number.

Texas law already tells the chief appraiser to use comparable sales and adjust them to your property, and to judge "comparable" by things like location, size, age, condition and amenities. (FACT, Tax Code Sec. 23.013) What the law does not do today is ask who sold the house or why.

HB 1104 asks that question. If the house was not somebody's homestead when it sold, it does not set the value of yours.

The receipt

This is not new. Rep. Bernal carried the same idea last session as HB 361. The committee substitute had the same two tests, the same 50,000 population line, and the same "same neighborhood" rule. (FACT, HB 361 bill analysis, 89th Legislature)

The House passed HB 361 on May 10, 2025. The Senate referred it to Local Government on May 13, 2025. That was its last action. It died there. (FACT, HB 361 history)

The committee's own analysis gave the reason for the bill: some neighborhoods see values climb faster because homes are bought to rent short term or flip for profit, and long time residents get taxed out. (FACT that the analysis says this. Whether it is true in your county is DOCUMENTED INFERENCE until somebody shows the sales data.)

East Texas. Gregg, Smith and Harrison counties each sit above 50,000 people. Upshur and Marion sit below it. (DOCUMENTED INFERENCE, U.S. Census QuickFacts) If that holds, this bill reaches Longview, Tyler and Marshall homesteads and does not reach Gilmer or Jefferson.

What Ryan says

RYAN STATEMENT: I like this one. And I do not care whose name is on it.

A family that has lived in the same house for twenty years should not get a bigger tax bill because a hedge fund overpaid for the house next door. That is not the market talking about my home. That is somebody else's bet.

Count the neighbor who actually lives here. That is a fair comparison.

This bill already passed the Texas House once. Then it went to a Senate committee and nobody heard from it again. That is how good ideas die in Austin. Quiet. No vote. No name on the kill.

So this time I want a hearing. I want a vote. I want every senator on the record.

And I want the appraisal districts in Gregg and Smith to show us something simple: how many of last year's comparable sales were homesteads, and how many were not. Same county, same houses, show me the split.

What this does not prove

• It does not cut your tax rate. Rates are still set by your city, county and school district.
• It does not cap your appraisal. The homestead cap is a separate law.
• It does not prove investor sales drove up your value. The bill assumes that. The data has to prove it.
• "Same neighborhood" is not defined in the bill text. That word will matter, and somebody will have to define it.
• Homes that sell without a homestead on them are not only flips. New construction from a builder, a rental, or a house sold out of an estate could all drop out of the pool. (DOCUMENTED INFERENCE from the bill's wording.) Fewer comparables could mean thinner data.
• There is no fiscal note yet. If some homestead values come in lower, the question of who picks up the difference has to be answered out loud.
• It is filed. It is not law.

What it does prove

• A bill to keep non-homestead sales out of homestead appraisals is on file for the 90th Legislature. (FACT)
• The same idea passed the House in 2025 and died in a Senate committee without a vote. (FACT)
• It would cover counties above 50,000 people, starting with the 2028 tax year. (FACT)

The bottom line

Your home is not an investment property. Do not appraise it like one.

The House already said yes once. The Senate let it die in a drawer.

Give it a hearing. Give it a vote. Show the comparable sales. The record does not lie.

Do not threaten anyone. Do not harass anyone. Do not contact anyone in my name. Read it. Share it. Send receipts, evidence, witnesses. Put eyes on the record.