Ground one: market value
This is the familiar argument: the appraisal district's number is higher than what your property would actually sell for. Texas law defines market value as the price a property would transfer for in cash, in the open market, given a reasonable time to find a buyer, with both sides acting in their own interest and neither one taking advantage of the other.That value is set as of January 1 of the tax year — a fixed point in time, not the day your notice arrives or the day of your hearing.
A market-value protest needs evidence tied to that question: what did comparable homes actually sell for around that date? A sale price, not a list price — asking prices tell you what a seller hoped for, not what a buyer paid. The closer a comparable sale is to your property in size, condition, and location, and the closer it happened to the January 1 valuation date, the more it actually bears on your case.
There's a second path here worth knowing about: if you get a certified appraisal of your own — performed by a certified appraiser, within 180 days of your hearing, delivered to the district at least 14 days before the hearing, stating the value as of January 1 and following the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice — the burden of proof can shift. For property valued at $1 million or less, the appraisal district then has to establish its own value by clear and convincing evidence, a higher bar than its normal one.
Ground two: unequal appraisal
This ground doesn't ask what your house is worth at all. It asks whether you're being appraised more heavily, relative to market value, than comparable properties around you. Under Texas law, an unequal-appraisal protest succeeds unless the appraisal district can show your appraisal ratio is at or below the median for a representative district-wide sample, or at or below the median for a reasonable number of properties similarly situated to yours, or that your appraised value is at or below the median appraised value of a reasonable number of comparable properties, appropriately adjusted.
That third path — median appraised value of appropriately adjusted comparable properties — is the same legal basis LoneStarLower's own comp math is built on: pull nearby, similar properties, adjust for size and other differences, find the median, and check whether the subject property sits above it. If it does, the law's default outcome is a reduction to that median unless the district proves otherwise.
This matters because a home can be appraised at or even below fair market value and still have a valid unequal-appraisal claim — the two grounds test different things. A district that's broadly accurate on average can still be inconsistent property to property, and an unequal-appraisal claim is what catches that.
| Ground | What it asks | Key evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Market value | Is the appraised value higher than what the property would actually sell for, as of January 1? | Recent comparable sales, or a qualifying certified appraisal |
| Unequal appraisal | Is the property valued above the median of comparable, appropriately adjusted properties nearby? | A sample of comparable properties' own appraised values, adjusted |
Source: Tex. Tax Code §§ 41.43(a), 41.43(a-1)-(a-2), 41.43(b)(3). Verified viatexas.public.law's mirror of § 41.43.
When the burden shifts further
Ordinarily, the appraisal district has to establish its value by a preponderance of the evidence — more likely than not correct. Two situations push that bar higher, to clear and convincing evidence, a meaningfully harder standard for the district to meet:
First, the certified-appraisal path described above. Second, if your property's appraised value was lowered in the preceding tax year — through something other than a written agreement — and you deliver supporting information (income and expense statements, comparable sales data, or evidence of unequal appraisal) to the district at least 14 days before your hearing, the district again has to defend its number by clear and convincing evidence. If it can't, the outcome favors you.Notably, the law is explicit that providing that information isn't a requirement placed on you — it's an option that, if you take it, raises the bar the district has to clear.
The reverse also exists: if you failed to deliver a required rendition, property report, or a response the district specifically requested before the hearing, the burden shifts onto you instead — you'd then need to establish the value by a preponderance of the evidence, and if you can't, the outcome favors the district.Responding to whatever the district actually asks you for, on time, is a small procedural step that protects a much bigger legal advantage.
Why "median," specifically
The unequal-appraisal test compares your property against themedian appraised value of the comparable sample, not the average.That distinction matters in practice. An average can be pulled sharply upward by one or two outliers in the sample — a recently renovated property, or one with a feature yours doesn't have. A median simply picks the middle value once the sample is ranked, so a single unusual comparable can't quietly drag the benchmark away from what the typical comparable property is actually appraised at. That's part of why the sample has to be genuinely comparable in the first place: the median is only meaningful if the properties feeding it actually resemble yours.
Why consider both
The two grounds need different evidence and can succeed or fail independently, which is exactly why checking only one box on your protest form can cost you. On the state's Notice of Protest form, checking the market-value box and separately checking the unequal-appraisal box preserves your right to argue both — if you only check one, you've represented that only that one applies, and you may not be able to raise the other at your hearing.
In practice that means: gather what you can on market value (recent, comparable sales, or a certified appraisal) and gather what you can on unequal appraisal (a sample of comparable properties' appraised values), check both boxes, and let whichever case is stronger carry the hearing. You lose nothing by having both ready. See what evidence actually persuades an appraiser for how to build each one.
One structural reason unequal-appraisal claims exist at all is worth understanding before your hearing: appraisal districts don't value homes one at a time. Seehow mass appraisal works for why a process that's broadly sound can still land unevenly on an individual property.
Building the unequal-appraisal side of a case by hand means pulling a genuinely comparable sample and adjusting it correctly — the part LoneStarLower's tool exists to do, so a homeowner can review the result and take it to their own hearing themselves.