If you plan to protest the latest property tax assessments, you can maximize your effectiveness by arming yourself with the right tools: sales comps. Property tax assessments are based on the previous year’s values. Your most immediate comps will be in your building, then your neighboring buildings, then greater downtown, etc. To get you started, we are going to focus on fourth quarter 2008 transactions. You can download the data set below.
21 = number of downtown Austin sales in Q4-2008
$311 = average sale price per foot
$263 = average sale price per foot of properties built pre-2000
$322 = average sale price per foot of properties East of Congress Ave
**this data does not include developer sales**
Not sure of your property’s value assessment? Visit Traviscad.org and search by your address. Print a copy of the protest form and submit by May 31st. BTW, the County’s value assessment has little to do with the amount you can sell your property for – so fight on!
pdf list of Q4 sales.
xls for the quants 
-Jude