Have you ever been curious to know what the market value of your home is? Or how it compares to that of your neighbors? I had some of the same questions too, so I set out to look for a good dataset to build a dashboard on, and came across the Harris County Appraisal District’s (HCAD) website. I found a downloadable dataset that I could import into my database and do some analysis on. I spent quite a bit of time just playing with the data and trying to find an interesting story to tell, or a neat way to interact with the data. The ‘aha’ moment came while I was showing some mock ups to a friend during a flight to Vegas and we both started asking different questions to see what the dataset could answer. The thing we found most interesting was the ability to see how our homes compared to those of others in our neighborhoods. So, with that in mind, I set out to build a Power BI dashboard. The end result is what you see below.
The data for this dashboard includes single and multi-family home appraisals for 2016 and 2015. I added a few calculations to get more insights, such as year over year changes in market and appraisal value, and groupings based on percent changes and lot sizes. The first page of the dashboard can be used for looking up your property and seeing how it compares to others in your neighborhood or in your zip code. You can sort the results by any of the columns, and can export the data to a spreadsheet.
The second page of the dashboard looks at average appraisal values by zip codes, and lists the average appraisal value by city on the right. The map allows you to filter homes based on the percent change from last year, the acreage, and the zip code. In this report it’s interesting to see find combinations of zip codes with really high appraisal values for a specific city. These are typically small neighborhoods with really high property values. You may also find some home with appraisal values in the millions that may not make much sense. I believe these are incorrect records for apartments that have an appraisal value of the entire apartment complex. Try it for yourself and see if you can spot a few!
Also, check out the video below to give you a quick walkthrough on how to use the first page of the dashboard.
Disclaimer: Data is provided as-is and may contain incorrect or inaccurate values. Numbers at the top are for all Harris County single and multi-family homes.
Very cool Victor! I’m getting ready to argue my property taxes and am importing all of the records for my neighborhood.
Glad to hear that you found it useful!
I am looking for a way to access the dashboard you constructed to use in my 2016 tax protest lawsuit against HCAD. Can you provide me with the way to obtain access to the described dashboard?
Frank S. Property Taxpayer wit case on appeal in District Court
This is pretty neat. There’s a new year out. I’m working with tax auction data at the moment, thought I’d poke my head up and see if anyone else was working with this data in power bi, and voila!