Dallas, Fort Worth Property Taxes: 2.0% to 2.7% in 2026

A $350,000 home in the Dallas, Fort Worth area runs about $7,000 to $9,450 a year in property taxes before exemptions. Spread across twelve escrow payments, that is $583 to $788 a month sitting on top of your principal and interest.

The range is that wide because Texas builds your bill out of several separate taxing units stacked on one address, and the mix changes from one side of a street to the other. Combined nominal rates across the metro commonly run 2.0% to 2.7% of assessed value. On an effective basis, meaning what owners actually pay after exemptions, the median in Dallas County sits around 1.7%.

Here is the rate math, how Tarrant County compares, the two filings that lower your number, and how all of it lands in your monthly payment.

How the numbers in this guide work. The 2.0% to 2.7% combined nominal range and the effective rates by county are metro-wide figures. Verify your specific address against the published schedules from the Dallas Central Appraisal District or the Tarrant Appraisal District, because your city and school district set most of the number. Exemption amounts and filing deadlines come from the Texas Comptroller. Dollar examples use a 2.2% combined rate, near the middle of the range, and Fort Worth’s $327,500 median sale price (August 2026, NTREIS MLS via TRERC) from my market report. Taxing units adopt new rates every fall, so treat every figure here as a planning number and confirm the current one before you write an offer.

What You Are Actually Paying For

Four kinds of taxing unit share your bill, and they are wildly unequal.

• School district. Usually 1.0% to 1.3% of assessed value. The largest single piece by a wide margin, and the reason two identical houses six miles apart can differ by four figures a year.
• City. Roughly 0.55% to 0.75%.
• County. About 0.22% in Dallas County, plus small amounts for hospital and college districts.
• Special districts. A municipal utility district or a public improvement district can add 0.3% to 0.8% on top. These show up almost exclusively in newer developments where a developer financed the infrastructure and the district repays it.

Every rate splits into two lines you will see on the bill. M&O, maintenance and operations, funds day-to-day services: teachers, police, parks, road repair. I&S, interest and sinking, pays down bonds that voters approved for buildings and capital projects. A district that just passed a bond package carries a higher I&S rate for years afterward, which is worth knowing when you weigh a new master-planned neighborhood against an established one.

The practical takeaway is to ask which taxing units hit a specific address rather than what the county average is. I pull the full list for every property my buyers tour, because the monthly cost difference between two houses at the same asking price is frequently larger than anything you will win negotiating the price.

The Bill at Four Price Points

At a 2.2% combined rate, before and after a homestead exemption:

Home value	Annual tax, no exemption	Monthly	Annual with homestead	Monthly
$300,000	$6,600	$550	about $5,200	about $433
$350,000	$7,700	$642	about $6,300	about $525
$400,000	$8,800	$733	about $7,400	about $617
$500,000	$11,000	$917	about $9,600	about $800

The homestead column assumes the $140,000 school district exemption applied against a school rate near 1.0%, which is where roughly $1,400 of annual savings comes from. Your actual saving moves with your district’s rate.

On Fort Worth’s $327,500 median sale price, 2.2% works out to about $7,205 a year, or about $600 a month before exemptions. That one line is often the difference between a payment a buyer can carry and one they cannot, which is why it belongs in your pre-approval conversation rather than in a spreadsheet you build after you are already under contract.

Tarrant County Versus Dallas County

Most of my clients shop Tarrant County, and the two counties are not interchangeable.

County	Effective rate after exemptions	What drives it
Dallas	around 1.7%	Widest spread between districts in the metro. Richardson ISD runs above Dallas ISD, and Mesquite ISD tends to run below both.
Tarrant	around 1.5%	Combined nominal rate near 2.2% per the Tarrant Appraisal District. Smaller districts frequently cost less than Fort Worth ISD.
Ellis	around 1.2%	Lowest of the three. Midlothian and Waxahachie are the usual landing spots for buyers pricing tax out.

A 0.2 point difference in effective rate on a $400,000 home is about $800 a year, every year you own it. Real money, but smaller than the swing between school districts inside a single county. Choose the district and the specific taxing units first, then check the rate.

One more thing to compare, and most buyers skip it: the appraisal, not the rate. Two counties can publish identical rates and still produce different bills, because their appraisal districts value property on their own schedules and their own methods. A low rate on a high value is not a bargain.

The Homestead Exemption, and the Filing That Unlocks It

The homestead exemption is the largest lever you actually control. It is a form, not a negotiation.

What it does. It removes $140,000 from your school district taxable value on an owner-occupied primary residence, up from $100,000 since January 2026 after voters approved Proposition 13 in November 2025. Because it applies to the school district portion of your rate, usually near 1.0%, it trims roughly $1,400 a year on a typical home. Cities, counties, and other units may offer their own percentage-based homestead exemptions on top of that.

The cap is the underrated half. Once the exemption is in place, your appraised value cannot rise more than 10% in a year no matter what the market does. In a metro where values have climbed for a decade, that cap frequently saves more across five years of ownership than the exemption amount does.

The deadline. File with your county appraisal district in the year you take title, and target April 30 to lock the savings into the current tax year. If you miss it, Texas allows a late filing, generally up to two years after the delinquency date, and the district issues a corrected bill. There is no reason to rely on that, but it is a genuine backstop if you closed in November and forgot.

Stacking. Homeowners 65 or older, and those who qualify as disabled, get an additional $60,000 off school district value, which brings the combined school exemption to $200,000. Totally disabled veterans can qualify for a full exemption. You cannot claim the age 65 and disability exemptions at the same time, and each one needs its own application. Age 65 and disabled owners can also transfer a school tax ceiling to a new Texas home of equal or lesser value. A standard homestead does not transfer, but you can file at the new address immediately.

Occupancy is the test. Investment property, second homes, and short-term rentals do not qualify, and appraisal districts audit this.

How To Protest an Appraisal

Your bill has two inputs. The rate is set by elected boards and you get one vote. The value is set by an appraiser and you get a hearing. Protesting the value is the faster path by a wide margin.

The timeline, in order. Notices of appraised value go out in the spring. Your deadline to file is May 15 or 30 days after your notice was delivered, whichever falls later. Miss it and the value stands for the year, so read the date on your own notice instead of trusting a generic calendar.

What happens after you file. Most districts offer an informal review first, online or with a staff appraiser, and a large share of protests are resolved right there. If the informal offer is not acceptable, you go to a formal hearing in front of the appraisal review board, an independent panel. You present, the district presents, the board rules. Dallas and Tarrant each publish their own forms, hearing procedures, and outcome data, so work from your district’s page rather than a general Texas guide.

What actually moves a value. Three arguments, in descending order of success:

1. Comparable sales. Recent closed sales of genuinely similar homes below your appraised value. Strongest evidence available, and the hardest to assemble, because portal estimates are not comparable sales. I pull real closed comps for clients who are protesting, whether or not they bought through me.
2. Unequal appraisal. Your home is valued higher than similar homes in the same neighborhood. Texas law allows this as a standalone argument.
3. Condition. Foundation movement, roof age, deferred maintenance, an unpermitted addition. Photographs and contractor estimates, not adjectives.

What does not work. Your bill went up too much. You cannot afford it. The rate is unfair. None of those are grounds, because the board rules only on value.

Bring me two addresses you are weighing and I will build the side-by-side: taxing units, current appraised values, special districts, exemption effect, and the real monthly difference. Book a free 10-minute consultation and you will leave with those numbers written down. If I waste your time, I send you $100 by Venmo or Zelle.

How Taxes Become a Monthly Number

Almost nobody in Texas writes a single annual tax check. Your lender escrows it.

The mechanics are simple. Your annual tax estimate divided by twelve becomes part of your monthly payment. The lender holds the money, pays the county on your behalf, and keeps a cushion of a couple of months on top as a buffer. Once a year the servicer runs an escrow analysis, compares what it collected against what it actually paid, and either refunds a surplus or raises your monthly payment to cover a shortfall. A large shortfall can also be billed as a lump sum, which is the version nobody enjoys.

Two things surprise people.

Your payment changes without your interest rate changing. A fixed-rate mortgage fixes principal and interest. Taxes and insurance are not fixed, and in DFW both have been climbing. Budget for a payment that drifts upward, because your escrow will.

The escrow set at closing is an estimate, and often a low one. That deserves its own section.

Year One After You Buy Is the Strange One

Four things happen in your first year that no online calculator models.

Taxes get prorated at closing. Texas taxes are billed in arrears and due January 31 for the prior year. At closing the seller covers January 1 through the closing date and you take it from there, and the adjustment shows up as a line item on your settlement statement. My closing costs breakdown places that line among everything else you are paying that day.

The seller’s exemptions are not yours. If the seller had a homestead exemption, or an over-65 exemption, the bill your lender used to size your escrow reflects their situation and not yours. Your own homestead does not apply until you file it, and the 10% cap does not protect you in year one because it attaches to a qualified homestead. This is why so many buyers get an escrow shortfall notice in month fourteen and assume something went wrong.

The appraisal district resets your value. A sale is the clearest evidence of market value that exists, and districts pay attention to it. If you bought above the previous appraised value, expect your next notice to move toward what you paid.

New construction is appraised at completion. Buy a house that was a slab on January 1 and the first year’s value reflects a partial improvement. The following year reflects a finished house, and the jump is steep. Budget from the completed value rather than from the first bill you receive.

If you are working through this for the first time, my first-time buyer guide sequences it against the rest of the timeline, and the buyer page lays out what I pay for along the way.

Get Your Address Priced, Not the County Average

Property taxes in the Dallas, Fort Worth area run 2.0% to 2.7% of assessed value in combined nominal rates, which lands near 1.7% effective in Dallas County and near 1.5% in Tarrant County once exemptions are applied. Your actual number depends on your school district, your city, whether a special district is attached, and which exemptions you file.

So bring me the addresses. On a free 10-minute Initial Consultation I will pull the taxing units for each one, show you the monthly difference, and tell you exactly what to file and when. You can also call me at 806-928-8884.

Buyers get the home inspection covered at roughly $600, a $500 moving credit, $0 commission out of your pocket, and an entry in my $2,000 monthly drawing under my written guarantees. Want to check me out first? I will hand you the phone numbers of recent clients who bought in Tarrant, Dallas, and Ellis counties, and you can ask them anything you like.