I used to live at Austin 8 years ago. My house value never change until from 2013. The property tax is about $6000 in 2013 and has been told will be 10% more in 2014. I moved to Irvine CA in 2006 and bought house in 2010. The property tax was about $6000 as well. Seeing this house value at Irvine bumped 50%, the property tax in 2013 is $6130. Before buying house in CA, my CA income tax was $1xxxx while it decreased to about $5000 after paying property tax in CA. While the house owning cost is almost the same, TX's house is of bigger size for sure. Texan like talking about house size while CA guy like talking about house location. whatever, I finally found I have to pay similar total tax after having been lived between TX and CA.