What if Houston taxed land instead of buildings?
Houston's property tax bills you on the land plus the building. A land value tax (LVT) bills you on the land only — exempting improvements. This map shows what would happen if the City of Houston replaced its property tax with a revenue-neutral LVT, parcel by parcel.
At the City's current rate ($0.5192/$100) on full-market values, the headline numbers for TY2025:
$0.5192/$100
$1.31 per $100
Methodology: Texas is a non-disclosure state, so HCAD's public files contain no sale prices. We use HCAD's reported land values directly. The white paper documents this as a limitation — the real LVT gap on surface lots and vacant land is likely larger than what's shown here.
Data: HCAD TY2025 (last certified roll), COH FY2026 tax rate, OSM parking, Microsoft Building Footprints. Methodology paper: whitepaper.pdf · onepager.pdf.