What Austin Suburb Property Taxes Actually Cost on a $380K Home in Five Communities
Before your October tax bill arrives, here's the real annual dollar amount—city, county, ISD, and MUD included—in Pflugerville, Cedar Park, Leander, Kyle, and Georgetown.
Before your October tax bill arrives, here’s the real annual dollar amount—city, county, ISD, and MUD included—in Pflugerville, Cedar Park, Leander, Kyle, and Georgetown.
Every real estate website serving the Austin market publishes the same table: a list of suburban ZIP codes with a blended effective tax rate expressed as a percentage. The problem is that percentage is close to useless for a buyer trying to understand what they’ll actually write a check for in January.
On a $380,000 home, the difference between Georgetown’s baseline tax burden and Kyle’s is roughly $11,500 over ten years at static rates before Municipal Utility Districts even enter the picture. Add a high-rate MUD in Kyle and no MUD in Georgetown, and that gap can exceed $20,000 over a decade. None of that shows up in a rate table.
October tax bills are mailing now. Buyers who closed this summer are about to see their first partial-year bill, and buyers shopping right now will receive a full bill in October 2026. This piece models the actual annual dollar amount owed on a single benchmark home—$380,000 assessed value, standard homestead exemption applied—across Pflugerville, Cedar Park, Leander, Kyle, and Georgetown, using each community’s full tax stack. The goal is to give buyers a number they can actually compare, not a percentage they have to decode.
Why Rate Percentages Are the Wrong Number to Compare
When a headline says “Pflugerville effective rate: 2.37%” and “Georgetown effective rate: 1.98%,” it’s not lying. It’s just measuring the wrong thing for a buyer’s purpose.
The percentage is a blended rate, meaning it rolls city, county, ISD, MUD, and every other taxing unit into a single number. That blended rate then gets applied to assessed value, but assessed value isn’t necessarily what you paid for the home. It changes by community and by year. The blended rate also obscures which layers are which, and the layers matter because they don’t all apply the same way.
The homestead exemption does not reduce the assessed value equally across all taxing units. The $100,000 ISD exemption under Proposition 4 (passed by Texas voters in November 2023) applies only to the school district portion of your bill. Your city and county taxes are still calculated on the full appraised value. When someone quotes you a blended effective rate and implies the homestead exemption reduces that whole number, they’re describing something that doesn’t exist in Texas tax law.
Then there are Municipal Utility Districts. A MUD is a separate taxing entity layered on top of city, county, and ISD taxes. It may or may not appear in a quoted blended rate, depending on whether the source bothered to include it. Many don’t. At a typical MUD rate of $0.50 to $0.80 or more per $100 of value on a $380,000 home, that omission is worth $1,900 to more than $3,000 per year. Per year.
Here’s the baseline framework used for this analysis: one home, $380,000 purchase price used as the assessed value (your actual appraisal may differ), one family with a standard homestead exemption in place, closing in fall 2025 with 2024 certified rates operative for the January 2026 bill. All five communities evaluated on identical assumptions. For buyers trying to situate this in our moving & real estate coverage, the full breakdown appears below.
How the Texas Property Tax Stack Actually Works—and Why This Year’s Numbers Are Different
Texas has no state income tax. The state pays for public services—especially schools—through a combination of state funding formulas and local property taxes. Your property tax bill is actually a stack of separate bills from separate taxing entities, combined onto one statement.
County. Travis, Williamson, or Hays County, depending on where you buy. The county rate funds courts, roads, the sheriff’s department, and county-level services. This rate applies to your full appraised value with no homestead exemption reducing the taxable base—though you may receive a flat dollar exemption in some counties. Verify with your county appraisal district.
City. The municipality itself—Pflugerville, Cedar Park, Leander, Kyle, or Georgetown. Funds police, fire, city parks, and municipal services. Applied to full appraised value.
ISD. The Independent School District. In Austin’s suburbs, this means Pflugerville ISD, Leander ISD, Round Rock ISD, Hays CISD, or Georgetown ISD depending on where your home sits. This is where Proposition 4 matters. As of the 2023 tax year, the homestead exemption on ISD taxation jumped from $40,000 to $100,000. On a $380,000 home, ISD taxes are calculated on $280,000, not $380,000—a meaningful reduction. The state has also continued post-Senate Bill 2 compression of ISD maintenance-and-operations rates, pushing school district rates lower than they were in 2021 or 2022. Anyone using rate data from two or three years ago is working with outdated numbers.
MUD or other special district. Municipal Utility Districts, Water Control and Improvement Districts (WCIDs), and similar entities layer on top of everything else. More on these in their own section.
One timing note that confuses new Texas homeowners: the tax bill you receive in October reflects rates adopted the previous fall. Rates adopted in September and October 2024 are the operative rates for the bills arriving in October 2025, due January 31, 2026. This is the rate vintage used throughout this article. Buyers should verify 2025 adopted rates as taxing units finalize them, but the 2024 certified rates provide the reliable current baseline.
The Homestead Exemption and What It Actually Saves in Dollars
The Texas homestead exemption isn’t a single exemption. It’s a collection of exemptions offered by individual taxing units. The big one—the one everyone references—is the $100,000 exemption on the ISD portion of your bill, created by Proposition 4.
It reduces the taxable value for ISD purposes by $100,000. On a $380,000 home, the school district calculates its tax on $280,000 instead of $380,000. But it doesn’t reduce your city tax, your county tax, or your MUD tax. Those are calculated on the full $380,000.
In dollars: at Leander ISD’s current rate of approximately $1.1946 per $100 valuation, the $100,000 exemption saves roughly $1,195 per year versus calculating on the full value. At Georgetown ISD’s rate of approximately $1.0690 per $100, the exemption is worth roughly $1,069 annually. At Hays CISD’s rate of approximately $1.3072 per $100, it’s worth roughly $1,307.
All ISD rates cited in this article reflect 2024 adopted figures. Verify current adopted rates at the county appraisal district’s Truth-in-Taxation portal before closing. ISD rates under state compression have been moving annually, and buyers should check the current adopted rate for their specific district.
The 10% appraisal cap is the other piece buyers closing this fall need to understand. Once a homestead exemption is on file, the appraised value for tax purposes can’t increase more than 10% per year over the prior year’s appraised value, regardless of what the market does. For buyers closing in fall 2025, the cap kicks in for the 2027 tax year (the first full year of homestead status after the 2026 assessment). In a rising-appraisal environment, this cap has real value. But it also means year-three and year-four bills can diverge significantly from the year-one number this article models.
The Five Communities, Side by Side
What follows is the full-stack annual bill on a $380,000 home in each community, using 2024 certified rates. Rates marked 🔍 require verification at the relevant county appraisal district before closing; the ✅ symbol indicates high-confidence figures consistent across sources. MUD impacts are excluded from this baseline table and addressed in the next section.
Pflugerville (Travis County, Pflugerville ISD)
- Travis County rate: ~$0.3969 per $100 ✅ → taxes on $380,000: ~$1,508
- City of Pflugerville rate: ~$0.4800 per $100 🔍 → taxes on $380,000: ~$1,824
- Pflugerville ISD rate: ~$1.0392 per $100 ✅ → taxes on $280,000 (after $100K homestead exemption): ~$2,910
- Baseline annual total (no MUD): approximately $6,242
Cedar Park, Leander ISD Scenario (Williamson County)
- Williamson County rate: ~$0.3547 per $100 ✅ → taxes on $380,000: ~$1,348
- City of Cedar Park rate: ~$0.4200 per $100 🔍 → taxes on $380,000: ~$1,596
- Leander ISD rate: ~$1.1946 per $100 🔍 → taxes on $280,000: ~$3,345
- Baseline annual total (no MUD): approximately $6,289
Cedar Park, Round Rock ISD Scenario (Williamson County)
- Williamson County rate: ~$0.3547 per $100 ✅ → taxes on $380,000: ~$1,348
- City of Cedar Park rate: ~$0.4200 per $100 🔍 → taxes on $380,000: ~$1,596
- Round Rock ISD rate: ~$0.9346 per $100 🔍 → taxes on $280,000: ~$2,617
- Baseline annual total (no MUD): approximately $5,561
The Cedar Park ISD split produces a $728 per year difference on otherwise identical benchmark homes within what buyers often treat as a single market. Same city. Same county rate. Different school district tax—and buyers tour both sides of that line without realizing it. The boundary runs in the vicinity of the 183A corridor and US-183; homes in the southeastern portions of Cedar Park near the 1431/183A corridor tend to fall in Round Rock ISD rather than Leander ISD.
Leander (Williamson County, Leander ISD)
- Williamson County rate: ~$0.3547 per $100 ✅ → taxes on $380,000: ~$1,348
- City of Leander rate: ~$0.4200–$0.4500 per $100 🔍 → taxes on $380,000: ~$1,596–$1,710
- Leander ISD rate: ~$1.1946 per $100 🔍 → taxes on $280,000: ~$3,345
- Baseline annual total (no MUD): approximately $6,289–$6,403
Kyle (Hays County, Hays CISD)
- Hays County rate: ~$0.3485 per $100 ✅ → taxes on $380,000: ~$1,324
- City of Kyle rate: ~$0.5300 per $100 🔍 → taxes on $380,000: ~$2,014
- Hays CISD rate: ~$1.3072 per $100 🔍 → taxes on $280,000: ~$3,660
- Baseline annual total (no MUD): approximately $6,998
Georgetown (Williamson County, Georgetown ISD)
- Williamson County rate: ~$0.3547 per $100 ✅ → taxes on $380,000: ~$1,348
- City of Georgetown rate: ~$0.3740–$0.4000 per $100 🔍 → taxes on $380,000: ~$1,421–$1,520
- Georgetown ISD rate: ~$1.0690 per $100 🔍 → taxes on $280,000: ~$2,993
- Baseline annual total (no MUD): approximately $5,762–$5,861
The Headline Numbers
| Community | Annual Bill (Baseline, No MUD) |
|---|---|
| Georgetown | ~$5,762–$5,861 |
| Cedar Park (Round Rock ISD) | ~$5,561 |
| Cedar Park (Leander ISD) | ~$6,289 |
| Leander | ~$6,289–$6,403 |
| Pflugerville | ~$6,242 |
| Kyle | ~$6,998 |
Kyle carries the highest baseline burden of the five communities, driven by Hays CISD’s notably higher ISD rate and the City of Kyle’s municipal rate. Georgetown’s lower city rate and Georgetown ISD rate produce the lowest baseline burden. Cedar Park’s position in this table depends entirely on which ISD applies to the specific address—a fact that’s easy to overlook and expensive to discover after closing.
All rates cited are 2024 certified adopted rates. Verify current figures before closing: Travis CAD at traviscad.org, Williamson CAD at wcad.org, Hays CAD at hayscad.com. Each CAD’s Truth-in-Taxation portal publishes the adopted rate for every taxing unit in its jurisdiction.
The MUD Factor
A Municipal Utility District is a separate taxing entity created, typically at a developer’s request, before a new subdivision has access to city water and sewer infrastructure. The developer finances the water, wastewater, and drainage improvements through bonds issued by the MUD. Homeowners in the district repay those bonds over time through an additional property tax—the MUD rate—layered on top of city, county, and ISD taxes.
The MUD infrastructure made the subdivision buildable. That’s the deal. But buyers who don’t know to ask about it receive a tax bill that’s substantially higher than they expected, every year, until the bonds are retired or the MUD is annexed by the city.
Here’s how the MUD factor plays out in each of the five communities. The dollar impact below uses a midrange illustrative rate of $0.55 per $100 (applied to the full $380,000 value, as MUDs don’t benefit from the ISD homestead exemption):
$0.55 per $100 on $380,000 = $2,090 per year added to the baseline bill.
At a higher MUD rate of $0.75 per $100, the addition is $2,850.
By Community
Pflugerville. The Blackhawk subdivision in northeast Pflugerville is one of the most prominent MUD communities in Travis County. Older areas of Pflugerville—Steeds Crossing and neighborhoods along the Cele Road corridor—generally have no MUD. MUD rates across Travis County’s active Pflugerville-area districts range from approximately $0.50 to more than $1.00 per $100 valuation depending on the district. Buyers in Blackhawk and similar newer communities should verify the specific district rate at Travis CAD or TCEQ before closing.
Cedar Park. Several newer developments along the 183A corridor carry MUD exposure, with rates in the range of approximately $0.20–$0.60 per $100 in applicable districts. Cedar Park’s older, established neighborhoods inside city limits—areas like Buttercup Creek—are generally MUD-free. Buyers in master-planned communities along the 183A growth corridor should verify their specific district.
Leander. The Bryson development in Leander carries an active MUD. Leander has aggressive new development with substantial MUD financing; the Bryson, Mason Hills, and Horizon Lake areas are known MUD zones, with rates across active Leander-area districts ranging from approximately $0.45 to $1.10 per $100. Newer Leander MUD bonds are fresh, meaning rates haven’t yet benefited from principal paydown or the addition of new taxable properties to the district. The established Crystal Falls area has lower MUD exposure than newer Leander subdivisions.
Kyle. Kyle has the most varied MUD landscape of the five communities. Plum Creek, one of Kyle’s older master-planned communities, operates under a Water Control and Improvement District (functionally similar to a MUD) whose rate has declined as bonds have been paid down over time—a useful illustration of how these rates fall over the life of the financing. The Anthem community in Kyle, a newer development, carries rates on the higher end of Kyle’s MUD range. Across Kyle’s active districts, MUD and WCID rates span approximately $0.55 to $1.10 or more per $100. A Kyle buyer needs to know which development they’re in; the relevant district’s current adopted rate is available at Hays CAD or through the TCEQ water district search.
Georgetown. Wolf Ranch, one of Georgetown’s signature master-planned communities, sits within a MUD with rates in the approximately $0.25–$0.65 per $100 range across Georgetown-area active districts. Sun City Georgetown falls under the Williamson County Water Control and Improvement District No. 2 (WCID 2), with its own rate structure. Over-65 homeowners also qualify for additional homestead exemptions at both the county and ISD level that can materially alter the bill; buyers in that category should verify current exemption amounts with Williamson CAD.
The Critical MUD Variable: Time
A buyer in Bryson (Leander) and a buyer in Plum Creek (Kyle) are in structurally different positions even if their current bills look similar. Newer MUD districts carry the highest rates at the beginning of ownership because the bonds are fresh. MUD rates typically decline over time as bonds are repaid and as more taxable property is added to the district—spreading the debt service across a larger tax base. Buyers in newer-district communities are paying the highest MUD rates of their entire ownership tenure right now; buyers in established districts have largely absorbed the peak.
Verify your specific subdivision’s MUD or WCID using the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s water district search tool at tceq.texas.gov/waterdistricts. Enter your subdivision address to find the district name, then look up that district’s adopted rate at the relevant county appraisal district. This isn’t optional research for buyers in newer developments. It’s the most consequential piece of information missing from the typical house-hunting conversation. No exceptions.
Ten-Year Cost and What It Means for a Mortgage Decision
The annual figures above are meaningful. Extended over ten years, they become decisive.
The following table uses the preliminary estimated annual figures for each community as a baseline comparison framework, under static assumptions—no appraisal growth, no rate changes, no MUD. This is obviously not how the real world works, but it creates a clean comparison frame.
| Community | Est. Annual (No MUD) | Est. 10-Year Cumulative |
|---|---|---|
| Georgetown | ~$5,000 | ~$50,000 |
| Cedar Park (Round Rock ISD) | ~$4,950 | ~$49,500 |
| Cedar Park (Leander ISD) | ~$5,700 | ~$57,000 |
| Pflugerville | ~$5,400 | ~$54,000 |
| Leander | ~$5,750 | ~$57,500 |
| Kyle | ~$6,150 | ~$61,500 |
The Georgetown-to-Kyle gap at baseline over ten years is approximately $11,500. A Kyle buyer with a high-rate MUD versus a Georgetown buyer with no MUD can face a cumulative difference exceeding $20,000 over ten years. That’s a number worth sitting with for a minute before signing anything.
The structural factors driving Georgetown’s lower burden—a lower city rate and a lower ISD rate than Kyle or Leander—are durable absent a major restructuring of those taxing units. Buyers should model their own scenarios using the rate-verification resources listed in this article, recognizing that both the relative ordering of these communities and the dollar gaps between them will shift as appraisals move and as ISDs adjust rates under state funding formula changes. Buyers who want to cross-reference how suburban new construction incentives interact with these tax burdens will find relevant context in what Austin builders are actually offering right now to move suburban inventory.
The Addresses That Fool Buyers
Three geographic traps catch buyers in this market regularly.
The Cedar Park ISD Split
Cedar Park’s 78613 ZIP code straddles the boundary between Leander ISD and Round Rock ISD. Southeastern portions of Cedar Park near the 1431/183A corridor tend to fall in Round Rock ISD; the majority of Cedar Park falls in Leander ISD. The buyer who tours two homes on the same afternoon—one on each side of that line—may be comparing meaningfully different annual tax bills without knowing it.
This distinction also affects school assignment, which is a separate buyer consideration. But the tax consequence alone is sufficient reason to verify ISD assignment before making an offer, not after. Ask your agent. Look up the address on Williamson CAD’s property search, which will show the taxing units assigned to that specific parcel.
Leander’s ETJ Shadow
Leander’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) extends beyond the city limits, and several active developments sit in that ETJ. In these areas, homeowners may carry a MUD rate but no City of Leander tax rate—because they haven’t been annexed, they don’t pay city taxes. Some ETJ addresses have lower total bills than in-city addresses; others don’t, depending on the MUD rate. The address-search tool at Williamson CAD will show whether the City of Leander appears as a taxing unit on that parcel. If it doesn’t, you’re in the ETJ.
Georgetown’s Sun City Structure
Sun City Georgetown has drawn significant retiree migration from California, the Pacific Northwest, and other Texas metros. What many buyers and their agents don’t know is that Sun City sits within the Williamson County Water Control and Improvement District No. 2 (WCID 2), which has its own rate structure separate from a standard Georgetown MUD. For Sun City buyers, the correct baseline isn’t the Georgetown city + Williamson County + Georgetown ISD calculation. It includes the WCID 2 overlay—a detail that doesn’t show up in most online rate comparisons. Buyers should verify the current adopted WCID 2 rate directly at Williamson CAD. Over-65 homeowners also qualify for additional homestead exemptions at both the county and ISD level that can materially alter the bill—a topic that deserves its own treatment for the retiree buyer specifically.
How to Verify Before Closing
For any of these communities: search the specific property address on the county appraisal district’s website. The property detail page will show every taxing unit associated with that parcel—city, county, ISD, MUD, WCID, and any other overlay. The TCEQ water district search (tceq.texas.gov/waterdistricts) confirms MUD and WCID membership and provides the district’s official contact information. Texas law also gives buyers the right to request a tax certificate at closing that confirms the property’s current tax status. In a transaction involving a MUD community, that tax certificate isn’t optional reading.
How to Read Your October Bill and What to Do Before It Arrives
Tax bills in Travis, Williamson, and Hays Counties mail in October. They’re due January 31, with penalties beginning February 1. Buyers who closed this summer will receive their first bill within weeks. It will be prorated for the portion of 2025 they owned the property, but the per-day rate it’s calculated on reflects the full annual tax.
A Texas property tax statement lists each taxing unit on a separate line—county, city, ISD, MUD, and any other entities. Each line shows the taxable value, the applied rate, and the resulting tax amount. Add the lines and you get the total bill. If your homestead exemption is in place, the ISD line’s taxable value will show $280,000 on a $380,000 home (or whatever the appraised value minus $100,000 is). If it shows the full appraised value, the exemption hasn’t been applied.
If your homestead exemption isn’t there, file immediately with the county appraisal district. Confirm the current application deadline and any late-filing provisions directly with your CAD.
Use the figures in this article as a check against your actual bill. If your bill includes a taxing unit you don’t recognize, or is missing one you expect, contact the county appraisal district to clarify before January 31. Misapplied rates and incorrect district assignments are rare but not unheard of, particularly in communities with active annexation or newly-formed MUDs.
Every taxing unit in Texas is required to post its proposed and adopted rates under the Truth-in-Taxation provisions of Texas Tax Code Chapter 26. Search “[taxing unit name] truth in taxation” and you should find the official notice. Travis County’s portal is at traviscad.org. Williamson CAD’s portal is at wcad.org. Hays CAD is at hayscad.com. Each site has an address-based property search that will return the complete list of taxing units and their adopted rates for any parcel.
Property value protests are due May 15 or 30 days after your appraisal notice arrives, whichever is later. That’s a spring issue, not a fall one. But if you receive your October bill and the appraised value looks materially different from your purchase price, flag it now and set a calendar reminder for spring. Don’t wait until April to realize you missed the window.
On a $380,000 home, Kyle carries the highest baseline tax burden of the five communities at approximately $6,998 per year, while Georgetown’s lower city and ISD rates produce the lowest at approximately $5,762–$5,861. That gap is roughly $1,100–$1,200 annually before MUDs enter the picture. Add a high-rate MUD in Kyle versus no MUD in Georgetown, and that difference can exceed $20,000 over ten years.
For a buyer shopping this market right now, the asking price on the listing sheet is the beginning of the conversation, not the end of it. The tax stack is carrying cost. Carrying cost is what you actually pay to live somewhere.
Rates cited reflect 2024 certified adopted figures and should be verified against current adopted rates at the applicable county appraisal district before closing. Rates marked 🔍 require direct verification. MUD rates cited reflect reported district ranges and are subject to annual board adoption; ranges reflect variation across known active districts within each community.
