A new state law restricts the public’s access to sales data used by appraisal districts. The Chron’s Rosanna Ruiz reported on this story. Predictably, the story is sprinkled with faulty assumptions, factual errors and editorial commentary:
Property owners considering whether to fight their tax bills may have a more difficult time thanks to a new Texas law.
That lede doesn’t make much sense. For the vast majority of property owners, it’s too late to be “considering whether to fight.” The protest deadline for most folks was more than two months ago. Nice timing, Chron!
The Texas Real Estate Association, which was the chief backer of the bill passed by lawmakers last legislative session, applauded the new restriction.
The organization is called the Texas Association of Realtors.
”The MLS data is copyrighted and private information.” said Tom Morgan, vice president of legal affairs for the Texas Real Estate Association.
(Sigh.)
Texas is among a handful of states that don’t require disclosure of real estate sales, so some appraisal districts must pay MLS agencies for such information.
That’ s incorrect. Sales prices aren’t disclosed. The sales themselves are.
But buyers and sellers of high-end properties typically seek to keep their transactions private and those properties often wind up undervalued.
Whoa now. That looks like an unsupported opinion. But whose? If it’s the opinion of someone in the story, it should have been attributed. That line appears between two quotes from State Rep. Mike Villareal, so I suspect Ruiz is parroting his opinion without attributing it.
If it’s the reporter’s opinion, it should have been left out of the story. Rosanna Ruiz is not qualified to tell me the market value of a piece of property.
”Voluntary sales price disclosure would benefit the average Texans and the realtors who sell homes to the average Texan,” Villarreal said.
“Realtor” should be capitalized, as it’s a brand name, like Dumpster or Sheetrock.
Property owners have 30 days after they receive their tax bills to protest the appraised values of their properties.
Wrong. Property owners have 30 days after notices of appraised value come out, generally in April/May. Tax bills aren’t issued until October.
I seriously hope people aren’t making financial decisions based on Houston’s Leading Information Source.
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14 Responses to “Chron’s HCAD story littered with errors”Search
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Sometimes I think the critics of the Chron are nitpicking, but not here. This number of mistakes in one routine article is shameful.
OK getting past the poor reporting. If we cannot see sales price how will we know if a like property has sold for less than ours? I thnk we were winning too many protests.
2.
You asked the key question. And why would our state legislature want to make this information difficult for the average Joe to get? Hmmmmm?
Oh, lobbies.
“…story littered with errors”
That’s refreshing. Their stories are usually littered with fecal matter dropped from an extremely rare brisket.
In this case, the Realtors are as much to blame as the eeevil legislators who like spending our tax money.
The real estate lobby had an easy time convincing the legislature that this bill would benefit Austin.
There’s an easy way around this: develop a relationship with a Realtor. Mine runs the MLS comparable sales data & emails it to me in the interest of continuing that relationship.
If I recall correctly there was some talk about making the sale prices of office bldgs. public because it is believed they are undervalued since the actual sale price is kept private verses the sale prices of residential property. Therefore office bldgs. may not be paying their fair share of property taxes.
So instead of disclosing the sale price of office bldgs. some lobby group decided to end the public display of residential sale prices?
Wonder who benefits from that switch?
All I am going to say is follow the money….
I’m more concerned with the message itself rather than the way it’s delivered. Doesn’t this violate freedom of information?
What is the next step?:
NEWS FLASH:
The HCAD announced a new consumer service today:
Starting with tax year 2009 for $19.99 per year you can have your HCAD information kept private.
AZ - bet every politician in the county subscribes to that service!!!
Well it follows the same bent logic of paying to get your credit report so you can check for false information then you have to go through hell to get it corrected. Why? You are guilty without any evidence being presented? It is backwards.
If every story in today’s paper had this many errors, they’re going to have to issue a supplement tomorrow just for corrections.
I agree the other errors in this story, and virtually every in the Chormical, are appalling, Istrongly disagree with the capitalization of “realtor” or “dumpster.” so far as this pedant knows, neither is trademarked like “Sheetrock” or Xerox” and therefore need not –AND SHOULD NOT ACCORDING TO STRUNK & WHITE — bear an initial capitalization. If the editors dispute this call, I challenge you to cite either the trademark or other authority to justify initial capitalization of non-trademarked nouns.
Sure thing.
“Realtor” is a registered trademark (number 0519789), registered by the National Association of Real Estate Boards in 1947 and renewed ever since.
“Dumpster” is likewise a registered trademark (number 0743745), registered by Dempster Brothers, Inc. in 1962 and renewed ever since.