Why a Melonie Park Seller's Tax Bill Won't Be Yours

"The tax proration may be calculated taking into consideration any change in exemptions that will affect the current year's taxes. If taxes for the current year vary from the amount prorated at closing, the parties shall adjust the prorations when tax statements for the current year are available."

That sentence is in Paragraph 13 of the Texas Real Estate Commission's One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale), the standard state form for resale homes. TREC lists this version, Form 20-19, as effective July 1, 2026. It's the only place the contract admits that a seller's tax bill and a buyer's tax bill can be two different numbers. It also names the reason. It points to exemptions, not market value.

In an established neighborhood like Melonie Park, that detail does more work than the cap does. The usual warning is that Texas's 10% homestead cap resets when a house sells, so the new owner gets hit with years of built-up value. In Lubbock right now, the cap is usually the smaller piece. The bigger piece is the set of exemptions and ceilings tied to the person who owns the house, and those leave at closing with them.

Melonie Park sits in Lubbock ISD's value curve

Start with where the house is taxed. On the Lubbock Central Appraisal District site, a Melonie Park parcel shows the legal description "MELONIE PARK," the appraisal neighborhood code "Res Melonie Pk," and Lubbock ISD as its school taxing unit. That matters because school taxes are the biggest line on the bill. It also lets us use LCAD's own average-value series for the district.

Here is the average market value of a single-family home in Lubbock ISD from LCAD's 2025 Annual Report, with the year-over-year change worked out from those figures:

The cap only holds back value in a year when market value rises faster than 10%. LCAD's homestead cap explainer puts it simply: appraised value can rise by no more than 10% over the prior year's appraised value, plus any new improvements. In this table, that happened in 2022 and 2023. It didn't happen in 2024 or 2025.

Why the cap gap mostly closed on its own

Take a hypothetical homestead whose market value tracked the Lubbock ISD average exactly, starting at $142,794 in 2021:

1. 2022: The cap allows $157,073 against a market value of $160,941. That's a gap of about $3,900.
2. 2023: The cap allows $172,781 against $182,642. The gap grows to about $9,900.
3. 2024: The cap would allow $190,059, which is more than the $188,021 market value. Appraised value is the lesser of the two, so the gap is gone.

Two flat years let the capped value catch up. A Melonie Park home won't follow the district average exactly, and LCAD values each property on its own. Still, the trend helps explain why a buyer in late 2026 usually isn't taking on a large cap reset. For 2026, the City of Lubbock's certified homesite roll came in about 2.7% higher than 2025 in total. That's an aggregate figure that includes new construction, not a typical-home increase, but it isn't a jump that would rebuild a big gap.

The cap still doesn't transfer. The Texas Comptroller explains that the limit applies only when the homestead exemption was in place in both the prior year and the current year. LCAD's explainer adds that a new owner's cap starts only after that owner qualifies. But when there's little or no gap left, losing the cap costs little.

The exemptions that leave with the seller

Some exemptions in Lubbock County depend on the owner, not the house. LCAD's 2025 Annual Report lists them by taxing unit:

A buyer who makes the home their homestead can apply for the $140,000 school exemption. The Comptroller's exemptions page says school districts must exempt that amount from a qualifying homestead's value. The other rows in the table depend on who owns the house.

The ceiling is the row that matters most. The Comptroller describes it as a limit on the tax itself, not an exemption, and says it doesn't change the home's appraised or taxable value. Under Texas Tax Code §11.26, the school tax ceiling ends when, on January 1, no qualifying owner uses the home as a residence homestead. The portability provision lets a qualifying owner carry the benefit to their next homestead. It doesn't pass to a buyer who doesn't qualify. Section 11.261 sets similar rules for the city and county ceilings that Lubbock and Lubbock County have adopted.

You can put a dollar figure on the exemption amounts alone at 2026 rates. A $65,000 reduction in school taxable value at Lubbock ISD's $0.8604 per $100 is about $559 a year. The $16,500 county, hospital district, and water district exemptions add about $70. That's roughly $630 a year before the city's $16,700 exemption, and before any ceiling. For an owner whose school, city, and county taxes have been held at a level set years ago, the ceiling can be worth well beyond that. In the hypothetical above, the cap gap was zero by 2024.

How the gap moves through closing and your escrow account

This is where Paragraph 13 comes in. Taxes for the year of sale are prorated through the closing date. The proration may take into account exemption changes that affect that year's taxes. The parties settle up once the actual bills are out. How the sale year itself is calculated depends on the seller's situation. Under Tax Code §11.42(c), an age or disability exemption applies for the full year in which a person qualifies. Sections 26.10 and 26.112 set out the calculation when a qualifying owner's status changes during the year.

The full difference usually shows up the year after closing, through escrow. Under the federal escrow rule, Regulation X, a servicer that doesn't know a coming charge may estimate it from the prior year's charge. If that prior-year figure is the seller's bill, with the seller's exemptions and ceiling, the account can be funded too low. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau notes that when the taxes in an escrowed payment change, the monthly mortgage payment changes too. The CFPB's servicing guidance covers how a shortage is handled. Depending on its size, the servicer can leave it, ask for repayment, or spread it over at least 12 months.

For a shift worker with uneven income, a mid-loan payment increase is harder to absorb than a higher payment that was planned from the start.

What the 2026 bills show

LCAD scheduled 2026 tax statements to go in the mail on Friday, October 23, and bills are also posted on its website. These are the 2026 rates per $100 of taxable value for the units that tax a Melonie Park homestead:

• Lubbock ISD: $0.8604, made up of $0.6854 for maintenance and operations and $0.1750 for debt service, as KCBD reported on Aug. 28, 2026.
• Lubbock County: $0.322782, adopted Sept. 14, 2026, according to KCBD.
• Lubbock County Hospital District: $0.099932, set by resolution on Sept. 14, 2026.
• High Plains Underground Water Conservation District: $0.002976, listed on the district's tax-rate page.
• City of Lubbock: The council approved a 6.78% property tax rate increase with its 2026-27 budget on Sept. 8, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported. The city's Sept. 1 agenda proposed $0.513421. The final city rate is printed on each 2026 bill.

A seller with a ceiling on their school, city, and county taxes can be partly shielded from rate changes like the city increase. A buyer pays the full adopted rates on whatever taxable value remains after their own exemptions.

How to read a Melonie Park listing's tax figure

Before you write an offer, open the property on LCAD's site. Each parcel page lists its current exemptions, its 2026 notice, and an Estimate Taxes tool. If the listing shows only a homestead exemption, the seller's bill is probably close to what you'll pay, and the cap reset is usually small at today's values. If it shows an over-65 or disabled-person exemption, expect your bill to run higher than the seller's. Ask your lender to build escrow from your own estimate instead of the seller's last bill.

Quick answers

Is the 10% cap ever the bigger factor? It can be, for a home that LCAD valued well above the district trend, or one with recent improvements. That's why each parcel's appraised value with the homestead limit is worth comparing to its market value on the 2026 notice.

I'm buying a Melonie Park house as a rental. Does any of this apply? The homestead rules don't apply to a rental. Non-homestead property valued up to $5.32 million has had a separate 20% limit on annual appraised-value increases, which the Comptroller says expires Dec. 31, 2026.

When does my own cap begin? After you qualify for the homestead exemption. LCAD's explainer walks through why a buyer who qualifies after January 1 gets the cap in a later tax year.

This post is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Please confirm your own exemptions, proration, and escrow with a tax professional, your title company, and your lender.

If you're looking at a Melonie Park home and the tax line looks lower than it should, let's pull up its LCAD record together before you make an offer. Heather Waller can help you estimate a payment that holds up after your first escrow review. Schedule a free consultation.