Texas voters just raised your homestead exemption to $140K

Archive note: This article records the November 2025 voter-approved change. For current rules, eligibility boundaries, and county appraisal-district links, use the Texas homestead exemption guide. The Texas Comptroller exemption page and its residence-homestead guide are the statewide sources; the local appraisal district decides an application.

Texans passed two property tax amendments last night, and most people are only hearing about one of them.

Proposition 13 raised the mandatory school district homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000.

Proposition 11 is the sleeper. It bumps the additional exemption for homeowners who are 65 or older, or disabled, from $10,000 to $60,000. If you fall into that group, your combined exemption goes from $110,000 to $200,000. That is a real number, not a rounding error, and most reporting has barely touched it.

Voters approved both changes on November 4, 2025, and the higher school-district exemptions apply to tax year 2025 and forward.

This was also the second major increase in two years. Proposition 4 in 2023 took the mandatory school-district exemption from $40,000 to $100,000, and Proposition 13 moved it to $140,000.

Here is what actually changes for you.

The numbers that matter

The school district homestead exemption is a flat dollar amount that comes off your home appraised value before the school portion of your property tax gets calculated. It only applies to your primary residence. If you own a rental, a vacation property, or a second home, none of this touches them.

For tax years 2025 and forward:

• General homestead exemption: $140,000 (up from $100,000)
• Over-65 or disabled add-on: $60,000 (up from $10,000)
• Combined for qualifying seniors and disabled homesteaders: $200,000

These amounts are separate from the residence-homestead appraisal cap and from disabled-veteran exemptions under Texas Tax Code Sections 11.131 and 11.22. The current Texas homestead guide keeps those categories distinct.

What this saves you, with real math

Property-tax savings depend on the applicable school-district rate. The example below uses $1.10 per $100 only as an illustration, not as the current rate for a specific address or district. Verify the actual adopted rate and exemptions for the property.

Take an illustrative homeowner with a $445,000 appraised residence homestead.

Before Prop 13: $445,000 minus the old $100,000 exemption equals $345,000 taxable. At $1.10 per $100, school tax owed is roughly $3,795 per year.

After Prop 13: $445,000 minus the new $140,000 exemption equals $305,000 taxable. School tax owed is roughly $3,355 per year.

Illustrative difference: about $440 per year at that assumed school-district rate.

Now run the same scenario for a homeowner over 65 who qualifies for both the general exemption and the new $60,000 senior add-on. Their combined exemption goes from $110,000 to $200,000. Their school tax base drops by $90,000. Savings: roughly $990 per year compared to the prior setup.

Actual savings depend on the adopted school-district rate and the appraisal district's eligibility determination.

One thing this does NOT do

The new exemption applies only to the school district portion of your property tax bill. Everything else stays where it was:

• County tax (Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, etc.)
• City tax
• MUD or PID assessments
• Hospital district
• Community college district
• Special improvement districts

These run their own budgets and set their own rates. If your county or city raises their rate next year (which several Austin metro entities have been doing), that increase offsets some of the homestead savings.

The share attributable to a school district varies by address and the other taxing units on the bill.

How to claim it (and the one mistake people make)

The county appraisal district administers the exemption and its chief appraiser decides whether a property qualifies. Use the official appraisal-district application or the Comptroller's Form 50-114, and ask the district whether an existing exemption requires any action after a statewide amount changes.

If you need to apply:

• Confirm that you have an ownership interest and use the property as your principal residence.
• File with the appraisal district in the county where the property is located.
• The general deadline is before May 1; ask the appraisal district about late or corrected applications.
• If you acquire the property after January 1, Texas law may allow the general exemption for the applicable part of that tax year if the prior owner did not receive the same exemption.

If you become eligible for the age-65-or-older or disability exemption and have not claimed it, file the applicable residence-homestead application and provide whatever support the appraisal district requires. Do not assume the district has enough information to add it without an application.

How this affects your mortgage

If property taxes are escrowed, the next annual analysis should use the servicer's projected disbursements. The higher exemption may reduce that projection, but insurance, other taxing units, shortages or surpluses, and the permitted cushion also affect the payment. A refund or lower payment is not guaranteed. See the escrow-analysis guide for the federal framework.

For a purchase, the tax estimate should be property-specific and should account for the taxing units, expected exemption eligibility, lender method, and the possibility that the seller's current bill does not represent the buyer's future bill. A lower school-district taxable value can improve the estimate, but it does not guarantee qualification.

The general residence-homestead exemption applies to a qualifying principal residence. Investment properties and second homes do not receive that general exemption. Use the current Comptroller and appraisal-district sources rather than comparing properties from a published headline rate alone.

For the full picture and direct source links, see the Texas homestead exemption guide. If an escrow payment changes unexpectedly, compare the servicer's analysis with the actual tax bill and insurance premium before drawing a conclusion.