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• WCREALTORS Super Bowl of Builders • Keller Williams Realty Round Rock Awards Banquet • WCR Winter White Party • Stewart Title Economic Forecast • and much, much more!
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Thursday, April 27th @ 6;00 p.m.
MARCH 2017 • VOLUME 21 • ISSUE 11
Early-Bird Tickets on Sale Now: Details on page 12
THE
PENINSULA AT
ROUGH HOLLOW
A PRIVATE LAKESTYLE NEIGHBORHOOD
ON ROUGH HOLLOW
What you need to know about the 2017 Legislative Session By Riki Markowitz
O
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n January 10, 2017, the 85th session of the Texas Legislature convened here in Austin. For less than 140 days, after distracting weekends and holidays, leaders from Texas Association of REALTORS (TAR), Austin Board of REALTORS(ABoR), Williamson County Realtors (WCREALTORS), and Texas Association of Builders (TAB)
have the chance to advocate for more than a dozen important issues. Some of the globally supported initiatives include reducing new fees and costly regulations, pushing for transportation and infrastructure funding, promoting affordable housing strategies, and mandating tax transparency.
Hidden Property Tax
The Problem: Hidden property taxes have been a threat to housing affordability in Austin, as well as Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, the last several years. Between 2004 and 2013 property owners watched tax revenues shoot up by 46 percent, according to TAR, which comes out to $14.29 billion. “Part of the increase can be attributed to new property added to the appraisal roll and higher property values,” says Daniel Gonzalez, TAR’s director of legislative affairs. What we can do: Demand transparency. Help owners recognize when their home value goes up but their tax rate stays the same or only lowers slightly, but not enough to cover their increased property appraisal. Sound confusing? Check out TAR’s helpful video on their Stop the Hidden Property Tax website. “Essentially what’s happening is that coun-
Featured Event Thursday, March 23rd, 6:30 p.m. WCREALTORS: Scholarship Foundation
Murder Mystery Dinner
Buy tickets at www.wcaor.org
YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE: April 4, 2017 ties are hiding behind higher appraisal values that justify higher budgets at the local level,” explains Gonzalez. “But no one tells property owners what the additional revenue is going to be used for.” Essentially, local taxing entities are not transparent about how tax rates are being set. As a result, many homeowners all over the spectrum have been forced to sell because they were unable to afford their tax liability.
Linkage Fees A top concern for TAB, one that trickles directly down to agents, brokers, and buyers, is the notion that Austin has been considering charging developers linkage fees. Those advocating for charging these impact fees say that earnings will fund affordable housing programs. But more likely, says Ned Muñoz, vice president of regulatory affairs at TAB, is the risk that more fees will put housing out of reach for potential buyers. Thousands in Austin alone would be priced out and won’t qualify for a mortgage. What is it: Linkage fees are a per-square-
foot assessment on all new development and is charged to builders. “The concern we have with the fees are that you’re raising the price of housing for everyone in the name of affordable housing for the few. We feel that it is counter intuitive,” says Muñoz. If there’s a $2 fee on a 2,000-square-foot home, a linkage fee adds $4,000 to the cost of that home. TAB crunched some numbers and came to the conclusion that for every $1,000 added to the price of a starter home, 20,000 potential buyers are priced out of home ownership. “It just doesn’t make sense,” says Gonzalez. While legislation on linkage fees has not yet been mandated in Texas, more than 900 TAB members from 28 chapters felt compelled to attend an organized rally at the Capitol in mid-February. What we can do: There’s a balanced way to do this, says Muñoz. For example, using existing revenues, float bonds, or offer incentives like waiving other regulatory fees.
Transportation and Infrastructure Front Page: Continued on page 28
Features of the Month Column: ABoR—Learn more about CodeNEXT.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 3 Column: WCAoR—Politics and the busy REALTOR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .pg. 7 Column: HBA—You're Invited to the HBA Crawfish Boil Builder/REALTOR Mixer. . . . . . pg. 15 Column: AREAA—Policy is SEXY!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 23 Associates in Progress: Veterans United Home Loans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 25 Column: WCR—Upcoming networking events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 35 Upcoming Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg. 38