WEST, Texas — Seemingly across the board in McLennan County, home valuations are on the uptick, and the same holds true for one couple who saw their property value jump nearly two-thirds in the past year.
"We have a deck, we have a shop and no matter what we do it's going to go up," said Elizabeth Hamilton.
Hamilton said the parcel of land her family's home sits on in West is 24 acres and was originally appraised at $200,000, but after splitting the land with a family member, the valuation jumped to $312,000 and is now over $520,000.
"We don't have a mortgage, my husband built the home with his own hands, but it's gotten to where you can't live, you can't have nice things," Hamilton said.
Hamilton said they don't understand why they continue to get increasingly taxed on the property, which her husband's family bought back in 1974, year in and year out.
"We're going to have to start saving, my husband just bought a new truck, and he's going to have to sell it," Hamilton said. "He works hard to make things happen, but we're going to have to do what we have to do to manage."
Jim Halbert, Interim Chief of the McLennan County Appraisal District, said the median valuation increase across the county was around one percent, but given the area Hamilton's home is located in, he said the family could be paying more for a desirable area to live, based on the housing market.
"Every year homes that are more in a rural area where they do have a little bit of land, those do seem to typically sell for more," Halbert said. "People kind of want to get out of the city."
Halbert said Hamilton would be well within her rights to file a protest and plead her case with the appraiser's office, though when writing up valuations, Halbert said their math is at the mercy of the markets.
"If certain areas are still increasing, then that's what we have to follow," Halbert said. "There's areas around the county that actually saw a little bit of a decrease in value. So whatever the market does, that's what we have to follow."
Halbert said through the first quarter of 2024, the Hamilton's property, a larger home and parcel, is what's catching the eye of buyers, and while sale prices are on the rise, per-square-foot valuation amounts remain up around one percent.
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