SAN ANTONIO — When the Comal County Appraisal district assessed Ralph Hughes's home in 2023, the appraisal was higher than he expected. It was around $817,000. Still, Hughes protested and the district later settled on around $649,000 which Hughes believed was more accurate.
When the local housing market cooled down in 2024, Hughes expect this year's appraisal to also be around $649,000.
He was wrong.
In 2024, the Comal County Appraisal District had increased his homes value to a whopping $911,200. It was a 40 percent increase from the previous year.
“It’s impossible to justify,” Hughes said. “It makes absolutely no sense.”
Hughes said he hadn’t made any additions to the home in the last year and the local housing market had seemed to level off according to the Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center. Now Hughes worried he would eventually be unable to pay his property taxes if property values continued on that trajectory.
“If this property were valued at $911,000, and gets there, we will have to make a decision to possibly leave this property.” Hughes said. “On a fixed income, a retired person has a limited amount of cash to spend each month.”
Hughes prepared to protest the amount and he also called Senator Donna Campbell’s office and the Texas Comptroller's office. He also called KENS 5.
KENS 5 came out to the property before Hughes filed his protest. Hughes did live in a nice neighborhood near Canyon Lake, but his home was not necessarily as elaborate, or as large, as some of the surrounding properties and Hughes argued it was not comparable to those properties. We found out the Comal County Appraisal District had also added value to Hughes’s property because of a supposed view of the lake. Hughes pointed out that he really didn’t have a view of the lake from his home.
KENS 5 also noted that the surrounding properties were not seeing a similar increase according to the Comal Appraisal District website.
KENS 5 then contacted the Comal County Appraisal District and asked if there had been some sort of error. We also asked what caused that supposed error.
The Comal Appraisal District sent KENS 5 a response that stated, in part, “The Comal Appraisal District does not discuss the appraisal of a specific piece of property with anybody but the property owner or their representative. Our office has been in discussions with Mr. Hughes over our 2024 appraisal of his property. We continue to discuss with Mr. Hughes, and the final value for tax year 2024 may ultimately be adjusted.”
But then, just one day after the appraisal district sent that response, KENS 5 discovered the district had updated Hughes’s property value and completely reversed the 40 percent increase. In fact, the new amount was actually lower than the previous year's value.
The property’s value had previously gone from around $649,000 to more than $911,000. After the appraisal district reviewed it, the value dropped to around $638,000.
The Comal Appraisal District later called Hughes to update him. They told Hughes they had originally classified his home in a higher class of property than it actually was.
District Director of Operations Tanner Jones told Hughes the district had reviewed his square footage and the construction of his home. Jones said of the home, “It’s simple, straight to the point, not extravagant and fancy.” Jones said the appraisal district had changed the classification of the home to “average”, slightly reduced the square feet for the home, and removed the added value for the home's view. As a result, they were now looking at an appraised market value of around $638,000.
The district further decreased the valuation the following week to $620,000.
Hughes said he was thankful that the value was now in line with other comparable properties.
“I feel better this year, certainly better, and I feel better going forward, for the next few years,” Hughes said.
The homeowner told KENS 5 he never got an answer on exactly where that $911,00 valuation actually came from but he believes it was inaccurate from the start. He said the main lesson learned: Other homeowners also need to pay close attention to their own property values so they avoid the same situation.
“You need to pay attention, you need to protest, and you need to come up with evidence that supports your protest,” Hughes said. “You can’t just say you don’t like the number. You have to show them and they might listen.”
The Comal County Protest Deadline for this year was May 15 but some homeowners may still be eligible to protest if they received their notice within the last 30 days.
According to the Comal County website: “Generally, the deadline to file a protest is May 15th or 30 days from the Notice date whichever is later. If you did not receive a Notice of Appraised Value, then you may still file a protest by filling out the appropriate protest form and filing it by the protest deadline."
Hughes said he suspects the additional attention from KENS 5 will help other people find a solution as well.
“There are many more people out there that need to do something and I think you guys helped,” Hughes said.
If you have a problem like this, we want to help you fix it! In our series, Call KENS, we do our best to solve problems for our viewers. The number to call is 210-470-KENS, or fill out the form on this page.