Proposing a constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide that the appraised value of a parcel of real property for ad valorem tax purposes for the first tax year in which the owner owns the property on January 1 is the market value of the property and that, if the owner purchased the property, the purchase price of the property is considered to be the market value of the property for that tax year and to limit increases in the appraised value of the property for subsequent tax years based on the inflation rate.

HJR 173 proposes a constitutional amendment to change how Texas property taxes are calculated for new owners. For the first tax year a person owns a property (as of January 1), the appraised value would be set to either the current market value or the purchase price if the owner bought it. For all following years, increases in the appraised value would be limited to the inflation rate, preventing sudden tax jumps. This would directly affect new property owners, especially homebuyers, by potentially lowering their initial tax bill and stabilizing future increases.