Galveston Property Taxes Cut in 67% of Informal Hearings

While Galveston County property tax appeals are heavily predicated on formal and judicial appeals, informal settlements are still a profitable and necessary step. 67.41% of all hearings resulted in a reduction in taxable value for taxpayers willing to fight it out, with over $36 million coming back to the people in 2023 alone. As the process continues on an upswing, do not miss your chance to save big. Join O’Connor’s Property Tax Protection Program™ today and be prepared to contest your taxes every year. There is no fee or cost to enroll, and you will only pay if we can lower your taxes. Enroll, relax, and save.

Resolved Informally Galveston CountySource: Texas Comptroller, compiled by O’Connor, and not affiliated with any appraisal district.

	Thousands
	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Total Number	15.935	23.160	29.065	28.077	26.918	25.759	32.370	42.451	43.084	35.916	34.447
Single Family	9.031	15.153	19.862	19.172	19.453	19.733	24.938	35.334	34.560	28.641	28.977
Commercial / Other	6.904	8.007	9.203	8.905	7.465	6.026	7.432	7.117	8.524	7.275	5.470

Texas property owners should protest annually since Most appeals are resolved with a reduction at the informal level.

Galveston County Property Tax Protests Resolved Informally

While the people of Galveston prefer formal hearings with the appraisal review board (ARB), informal appeals are certainly useful. More than just a gateway to the ARB and lawsuits, these humble tools allow the average person the chance to take on the Galveston County Central Appraisal District (GCAD) and win. Get help from one of the biggest property tax firms in the nation when you enroll with O’Connor for your protest. Houston-based, O’Connor has been fighting GCAD and other districts for over 50 years.

GCAD Informal Settlements

Galveston County has some of the highest protest values in Texas when it comes to the ARB and judicial appeals, but that does not mean that informal protests are lacking. These settlements have been on the rise as well, with 2023 being the only down year seen since 2019. That is still a bit of a misnomer, as 35,915 settlements is still an excellent figure. Throw in the fact that 2022 was the best year in the history of the county for informal appeals, and this retreat does not look so shabby.

Leading the charge, as expected, were single family homes. There were 28,641 residential settlements in 2023. While down from 34.560 in 2022, this was still the third-best ever seen in the county. 7,275 commercial settlements that were taken care of informally were a bit down, but better than average. As businesses are hyper-focused on both judicial appeals and ARB hearings, it is common for settlements at this level to be rejected out of hand.

Resulted in Reduction Through Informal Process Galveston CountySource: Texas Comptroller, compiled by O’Connor, and not affiliated with any appraisal district.

	Thousands
	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Total Number	15.774	15.720	14.309	20.560	19.910	19.260	23.137	27.208	27.238	24.211	22.744
Single Family	8.930	11.198	9.476	15.928	16.322	16.716	19.190	23.751	23.749	20.852	18.651
Commercial / Other	6.844	4.522	4.833	4.632	3.588	2.544	3.947	3.457	3.489	3.359	3.639

Texas property owners should protest annually since It is the world’s safest wager. No cost and a 60% chance of savings annually.

Galveston County Informal Hearing Reductions

While they are down in number, informal settlements had a lot of kick when it came to bringing in savings for taxpayers. 24,211 informal settlements resulted in a reduction in 2023. Again, this was down from 2022 but was still the third-most ever seen. 20,852 single family homes managed to land a reduction, while 3,359 businesses of various types did the same. Commercial settlements have largely been on a flat trajectory in the previous few years, while residential properties have seen a downward trend.

Percent That Resulted in A ReductionSource: Texas Comptroller, compiled by O’Connor, and not affiliated with any appraisal district.

	Percent
	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Total Number	98.990%	67.880%	49.230%	73.230%	73.970%	74.770%	71.480%	64.090%	63.220%	67.410%	66.030%
Single Family	98.880%	73.900%	47.710%	83.080%	83.900%	84.710%	76.950%	67.220%	68.720%	72.800%	64.360%
Commercial / Other	99.130%	56.480%	52.520%	52.020%	48.060%	42.220%	53.110%	48.570%	40.930%	46.170%	66.530%

Texas property owners should protest annually since Errors in the appraisal districts records for your property often artificially inflate YOUR property taxes.

Galveston County Percentage of Informal Hearings with Reduction

2023 was the best year for informal reductions since 2020. 67.41% of all hearings ended with a reduction in favor of the taxpayer. This is below the statewide average of 73.66%, but the main cause of this seems to be so many Galveston taxpayers taking their cases to the ARB or even judicial appeals. Before embracing ARB hearings, the county was right around average, so this demonstrates a change in strategy by filers rather than being an indictment on informal appeals.

72.85% of single family home appeals were successful, the best since 2020. There seems to be a small upward trend as well, possibly indicating that GCAD is starting to hand out better settlements for this step in the process. Commercial properties were able to win 46.17% of the time, which is below the Texas average of 56.42%. Businesses in the county typically focus on the ARB and possibly judicial appeals, so this result is not surprising. It does indicate that homeowners or businesses wanting to only go for an informal protest should find success and that it could be a very viable strategy for taxpayers working on a restricted budget of time and money.

$ Value Reduction From Informal ProcessSource: Texas Comptroller, compiled by O’Connor, and not affiliated with any appraisal district.

	Billions of $
	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
$ Reduction Total	0.2856	0.5110	0.6406	0.7518	0.8629	0.8981	1.1392	1.9904	2.0661	3.2421	4.4181
$ Reduction Single Family	0.1189	0.2732	0.2561	0.2420	0.2278	0.5278	0.6823	1.1942	1.2038	1.5814	1.9591
$ Value Commercial / Other	0.1667	0.2378	0.3845	0.5098	0.6351	0.3703	0.4569	0.7962	0.8623	1.6606	2.4590

Texas property owners should protest annually since Property taxes are the only type that can be negotiated based on subjective factors and judgment.

GCAD Value Reduction from the Informal Process

Even with their relatively light number of settlements, informal protests still brought in great savings, with 2023 being the third-best on record. $1.73 billion in taxable value was successfully cut via informal means. $1.03 billion came from residential properties, while businesses were able to nab $705.100 million. These are respectable numbers for most Texas districts, even without later appeal stages thrown into the mix. This means that taxpayers going against GCAD have a litany of viable options at their disposal, which allows for a versatile and inclusive process.