county appraisal district question

[branboles]

Hi folks,

I was curious how the CAD comes up with their appraisal figures, so I called them up.  The lady I spoke with told me that they use sales data from properties that have been sold in the last year because they update appraisals once a year.  I know that there is no way to publicly find out what a property sold for in Texas (please tell me if I'm wrong about this).  My questions is, where does the CAD get this data from if it isn't publicly available?  Did I misunderstand what the CAD was telling me?  The county I'm talking about is Cameron County in south Texas, BTW.  Can anyone shed some light on this?  Thanks!

Brandon

[StacyKellams]

I don't know about your county, but here in Travis County they have access to all sales data. It's probably some form of MLS that they use.

I doubt the smaller counties are as sophisticated as Travis.

[Admin]

Brandon,
In addition to what Kellams said, the county (in my area) typically sends out a disclosure form when there's a change of title.  I'm quite certain a large number of folks dutifully fill out this "government" form that asks for the sales price and send it back.