DALLAS — Leaves aren’t the only things that fall in September. Though stock indexes recovered nicely Wednesday, the markets got their bell rung to start the month. And if you look at the past half-century, the market has fallen more in September than the other months of the year. No guarantees, but if you are trying to time your investments, one expert told USA Today the first three weeks of September are usually decent. He says it’s that last week when things tend to get ugly.
Money.com has put out its list of colleges that give you the best value for your buck, and no DFW schools were ranked highly. The only Texas universities in the top 100 were Texas A&M (#18), Rice University (#24), and The University of Texas (#28).
The City of Dallas held a public hearing Wednesday about raising the property tax rate by a small fraction, to bring in millions of dollars extra for more police. The city manager points out in the budget proposal that Dallas hasn’t raised its rate since 2011.
That may sound nonsensical to many property owners who have seen their tax bills rising steadily. Quick reminder--the rate is just part of the equation. When they calculate property taxes (let’s say for your home), the tax rate is multiplied by what your home is valued at (divided by 100).
And since 2011, home values have exploded, up by an average of about 55 percent. Just because of those higher valuations, if you owned a home in 2011, you would have paid significantly more in taxes in recent years. Even though the tax rate stayed largely unchanged. If you would like to have a say about the proposed tax rate increase of .33 cents per $100 in Dallas, there’s another hearing September 11th at 1 p.m. at Dallas City Hall.