Frisco Held Its Tax Rates Flat This Year. So Why Are Bills Still Going Up?

If you're buying in Frisco this fall, the tax bill on the listing is the seller's bill. It reflects the seller's appraisal history, the seller's exemptions and, in some cases, a freeze tied to the seller's age. Frisco's 2026 rate decisions make the gap easy to miss. Both the city and Frisco ISD voted to keep their rates flat, and their own projections still show the average homeowner paying more.

A buyer's first-year bill comes from three things the seller's bill hides. The first is how far the appraisal has room to climb. The second is which exemptions the buyer qualifies for and when. The third is which county and school district the address sits in. Each one is covered below, in the order it tends to show up during a transaction.

The Seller's Exemptions End With the Seller

A Frisco homeowner with a homestead exemption can carry several layers of reduction. Collin Central Appraisal District's 2026 table lists them for the two biggest taxing units on most Frisco bills.

1. School homestead exemption. The Texas Comptroller says Texas requires school districts to exempt $140,000 of a residence homestead's value from school taxes. At Frisco ISD's 2026 rate of $1.0194 per $100, that exemption alone is worth about $1,427 a year.
2. City homestead exemption. The City of Frisco exempts 20% of a homestead's value. The council raised it from 15% in June 2025, and the 2026 table still shows 20%. On a home with $600,000 of taxable value, 20% is $120,000, or roughly $511 a year at the city rate.
3. Over-65 and disabled exemptions and freezes. Frisco offers an $80,000 local exemption to homeowners who are over 65 or disabled, plus a tax freeze. Frisco ISD adds $60,000 for each group, also with a freeze.
4. The 10% homestead appraisal cap. The Texas Comptroller says that, for an owner who qualifies for a homestead exemption in consecutive years, the appraised value can rise by no more than 10% a year over the prior year's appraised value, plus any new improvements. If market value is lower than that, market value applies.

The fourth layer is the one that surprises buyers. According to the Texas Comptroller, the seller's cap expires once the former owner no longer qualifies. The buyer's own cap begins only after the buyer qualifies for a homestead, and the timing is keyed to January 1. Appraisal starts from market value, so a home bought from a long-time owner can see its appraisal move toward market value rather than stay at the seller's capped figure. If the seller also had an over-65 freeze, the school portion of their bill may have been frozen for years. In that case the listing's tax line can be far from what the next owner pays.

How a Flat Rate Still Raises the Average Bill

The 2026 rate decisions show the cap at work.

On Sept. 15, 2026, Frisco City Council kept the city rate at $0.425517 per $100 of valuation, its ninth straight year without an increase. A month earlier, on Aug. 10, the council had approved a maximum rate of $0.441289, which would have been the first increase since 2017. It chose not to adopt that rate. Even so, the city's own presentation put the average taxable home value at $608,520 and projected an average bill increase of $8 a month.

Frisco ISD's board did the same thing on Aug. 17. It kept the rate at $1.0194 and projected the average homeowner would pay $141 more a year. The district reported that the average residence taxable value in 2026 is $565,084, up 2.5% from the year before.

Market values went the other way. When Collin CAD released 2026 certified values as of July 23, it reported that the average home market value in Collin County fell from $603,190 in 2025 to $588,119 in 2026. Total certified taxable value in the county still rose 4.43%, with $7.7 billion in new property added to the rolls.

These figures don't measure the same thing. One is a countywide market value. The other is taxable value within one school district. Read together, they still describe a familiar pattern. When a homestead's capped value sits below its market value, the capped value can keep rising by up to 10% a year even after the market levels off. Many longer-held homes have room to catch up, so taxable values can rise in a year when average market values dip. For a buyer, this means the same rate can produce a different bill depending on how much catch-up was left in the home they bought.

Collin County did raise its rate this year. On Sept. 14, 2026, the Commissioners Court approved $0.151414 per $100, up 1.4% from the $0.149343 rate in place since FY 2023-24. County Judge Chris Hill voted against it and noted the county had not raised its rate since 1993. The county's budget director said whether a given bill goes up depends on how that property's value changed.

Which County and ISD an Address Falls In

Frisco covers parts of Collin and Denton counties and is served by several school districts. Every Frisco bill includes the same city rate. The county and school district lines change with the address, and the school line is the largest.

Prosper ISD's board approved its rate on Aug. 24, 2026. Lewisville ISD posted its adopted rate on Aug. 28. Collin College's trustees adopted theirs on Aug. 25. Collin College appears on Collin CAD's table, so it shows up on Collin County addresses.

The spread between the lowest and highest school rates in the table is about $0.21 per $100. That comes to roughly $206 a year for every $100,000 of taxable school value. Two Frisco homes with the same price, the same HOA and the same commute can carry different annual tax costs for that reason alone. You can see every rate on an address's bill in the Collin CAD 2026 rate and exemption table and Denton County's truth-in-taxation page. This is the step to take before trusting any estimate, including the one on a listing.

Building a First-Year Estimate

Here is a practical way to estimate what you'll owe on a specific Frisco home:

• Start from the expected purchase price, not the seller's appraised value. The cap that held the seller's value down ends with the seller.
• Add up the rates for that address's actual taxing units: the city, the county, Collin College if the address is in Collin County, and the correct ISD.
• Apply only the exemptions you will qualify for. Include the $140,000 school exemption and Frisco's 20% city exemption once you qualify for a homestead, and the over-65 or disabled exemptions only if they apply to you.
• Treat the first year as a transition. According to the Comptroller, your cap begins only after you qualify, with timing keyed to January 1.

None of this is tax advice. For questions about your own exemptions or appraisal, go to the appraisal district or a tax professional. A careful estimate built this way is still much closer to the real bill than the number printed on a listing.

FAQ

Did Frisco raise its property tax rate for 2026? No. City Council kept the rate at $0.425517 per $100 on Sept. 15, 2026, after considering a maximum rate of $0.441289 in August.

If my appraisal went down, can my bill still go up? It can. A bill depends on taxable value, exemptions and the rates of every taxing unit on it. Collin County raised its rate this year. The county's budget director said individual results depend on how each property's value changed.

Does the seller's homestead exemption help me after I buy? No. The seller's exemptions and 10% cap end when the seller no longer qualifies. Your own homestead exemption and cap begin once you qualify.

If you're comparing Frisco homes across county or school district lines, Asha Rani can help you put together a first-year tax estimate for each address before you make an offer. Let's connect. You can also get your personalized home valuation.