Corpus Christi Beach, TX: Property Tax Guide
Texas has no state income tax -- and property tax is where that tradeoff shows up. Corpus Christi Beach sits in ZIP code 78402, and that specific ZIP is reported to carry the highest effective property tax rate of any ZIP code in the City of Corpus Christi. This page states that number plainly, shows the stacked local tax rates that build up to it, and explains the real Texas-specific mechanics -- the homestead exemption, the 10% appraisal cap, and the over-65 tax ceiling -- that actually affect what an owner pays here.
The Real Number: ZIP 78402's 2.25% Effective Rate
Corpus Christi Beach (North Beach) sits entirely within ZIP code 78402, and property-tax data aggregators tracking effective rates by ZIP report that 78402 carries the highest effective property tax rate of any ZIP code in the City of Corpus Christi: 2.25% of assessed value, attributed to relatively higher home values in this specific coastal area compared to the rest of the city. For context, the same reporting puts the citywide Corpus Christi average effective rate at 1.96%, and Nueces County's overall median effective rate at 2.05% -- meaning Corpus Christi Beach runs meaningfully above both the county and city averages, not below them.
To translate that into a dollar figure, this page needs an accurate, ZIP-78402-specific home value -- and here it's worth flagging a real data problem. A $378,707 "North Beach median home price" figure is widely repeated online and traces back to NeighborhoodScout, but NeighborhoodScout's own page title for that data reads "North Beach Corpus Christi, TX 78410." ZIP 78410 is not this peninsula -- it's Calallen, a rural, inland, far-northwest Corpus Christi ZIP roughly 16 miles from downtown with its own Calallen Independent School District and no bay frontage. That figure appears to describe Calallen, mislabeled as "North Beach," rather than the actual coastal peninsula in ZIP 78402, so this page does not use it. The best available ZIP-78402-specific figure comes from HAR.com's price-trends data for that ZIP: an average home price of roughly $199,178 (as of June 2025, about $255 per square foot). Applying the reported 78402 effective rate of 2.25% to that figure works out to roughly $4,482 per year -- an illustrative calculation this page is showing its work on, not an official assessment, since it combines two independently sourced figures rather than one authoritative parcel-level number, and 78402 is a small, thin market where month-to-month averages can swing meaningfully on low sales volume. For comparison, citywide Corpus Christi figures (a broader mix of neighborhoods) show a median home value around $197,100 and a median annual tax bill around $3,342 -- Corpus Christi Beach's illustrative bill runs somewhat above that citywide figure primarily because of its higher tax rate, not a dramatically higher home value.
What Builds the Rate: The Stacked Local Taxing Entities
A Corpus Christi Beach property tax bill isn't set by one government -- it's the sum of separately adopted rates from every taxing entity whose boundary includes the parcel, all billed together and collected by the Nueces County Tax Assessor-Collector. Reporting on Nueces County's 2025-26 tax rates put the combined rate from six major local taxing entities at roughly $2.21 per $100 of assessed value (about 2.21%) -- consistent with, and close to, the 78402-specific 2.25% figure cited above. The individually confirmed pieces: the City of Corpus Christi adopted a fiscal year 2025 municipal rate of $0.599774 per $100 valuation (roughly $0.60), split into about $107.05 million for maintenance and operations and about $62.44 million for debt service (interest and sinking); Nueces County's own rate runs around $0.28 per $100; and Del Mar College's 2024-25 adopted rate is $0.26174 per $100.
That leaves the largest remaining share -- likely $1.00-$1.10 per $100 of the roughly $2.21 total -- split between the local independent school district and the Nueces County Hospital District, whose individual current rates were not independently itemized in this research pass. This page does not invent a precise split for those two entities; confirm the full, current, line-by-line rate breakdown for a specific Corpus Christi Beach parcel directly through the Nueces County Tax Assessor-Collector's Truth-in-Taxation rate worksheets, which publish every adopted rate by entity each year.
No State Income Tax -- the Real Tradeoff, Not a Slogan
Texas is one of nine states with no state income tax, and that's a real, structural fact that shapes the whole state's local finance -- cities, counties, school districts, hospital districts, and community college districts lean much harder on property tax revenue than they would in an income-tax state, and Nueces County's reported 2.05% median effective rate (nearly double the roughly 1.02% U.S. national median effective rate cited in general property-tax comparisons) is a direct expression of that. For a buyer relocating from a state with both income and moderate property tax, the honest framing is: no state income tax bill ever again, but a meaningfully higher, ongoing annual property tax bill than most of the country -- not a simple win, a genuine tradeoff whose net effect depends heavily on income level and how long you plan to hold the property.
None of this is unique to Corpus Christi Beach -- it's a statewide Texas dynamic -- but it matters more here specifically because 78402's reported 2.25% effective rate already runs above both the city and county averages, meaning the state-level tradeoff and the neighborhood-level premium compound rather than offset each other.
Texas' 10% Appraisal Cap and the Homestead Exemption
Texas law caps how much a homesteaded property's appraised value can rise for tax purposes in a single year at 10%, regardless of how much the market value actually increased -- a real, statewide protection similar in spirit (though not identical in mechanics) to assessment caps used in other high-property-tax coastal states. It only applies to a homestead -- the owner's actual primary residence with a filed homestead exemption on file with the Nueces County Appraisal District -- not to second homes, vacation properties, or investment rentals, which is a meaningful distinction on a peninsula with a real mix of full-time residents and vacation/investment property.
Texas voters also substantially raised the state's mandatory school-district homestead exemption via a November 2023 constitutional amendment (Proposition 4), lifting it from $40,000 to $100,000 of assessed value exempted from school district taxes specifically -- a real, meaningful reduction in the school-tax portion of a homesteaded owner's bill, though it does not reduce the city, county, college, or hospital district portions of the same bill. Confirm current exemption amounts, filing deadlines, and eligibility directly with the Nueces County Appraisal District before assuming any specific dollar reduction applies to a purchase.
The Over-65 Tax Ceiling
Texas law also provides a school-district tax ceiling for homeowners age 65 or older (and for disabled homeowners) on their homestead -- once granted, the school-district portion of the tax bill is frozen at that year's dollar amount and generally cannot increase in later years, even if the property's appraised value keeps rising, with some exceptions for new improvements to the property. This is a real, statewide Texas benefit relevant to anyone considering Corpus Christi Beach for retirement, and it can meaningfully change the long-term math on the school-district share of a tax bill for an owner who qualifies and files for it.
This page does not state the exact current dollar ceiling for any specific Corpus Christi Beach parcel, since that depends on the specific school district's rate in the year the exemption was first granted. Confirm eligibility, filing requirements, and the actual dollar ceiling that would apply directly with the Nueces County Appraisal District.
What to Actually Budget
Three things matter most in practice. First, don't anchor a purchase budget to a listing's currently displayed tax bill if the seller has held the property a long time under a capped, below-market appraisal -- Texas' 10% cap keeps assessed value below market value during long ownership, and while Texas (unlike Florida) does not force an automatic full reassessment at sale, the Nueces County Appraisal District does reassess properties periodically and a sale price becomes a very visible data point in that process. Second, use the 78402-specific 2.25% effective rate as your planning baseline rather than the lower citywide 1.96% average -- Corpus Christi Beach is demonstrably taxed above the city's own average, not at it. Third, pull the actual current combined rate and this specific parcel's assessed value directly from the Nueces County Appraisal District's own records before finalizing any purchase budget, since the rate mix (city, county, school district, hospital district, college, and any special district) genuinely varies by exact parcel location.
None of this is tax advice. A Texas property tax consultant, CPA, or real estate attorney familiar with Nueces County specifics should review the actual numbers on any real purchase before you rely on them.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Facts used: property-tax data aggregator reporting (including PropertyTaxByState-type ZIP-level analysis and Ownwell's Nueces County/Corpus Christi trend pages) citing ZIP 78402's 2.25% effective property tax rate as the highest of any Corpus Christi ZIP, the citywide Corpus Christi average effective rate of 1.96%, Nueces County's median effective rate of 2.05%, a citywide median home value of approximately $197,100, and a citywide median annual tax bill of approximately $3,342; HAR.com's ZIP-78402 price-trends data citing an average home price of approximately $199,178 (as of June 2025, ~$255/sq ft), used here for an illustrative, clearly-labeled tax estimate rather than an official figure -- used in place of a widely repeated $378,707 "North Beach" figure attributed to NeighborhoodScout, whose own page title reads "North Beach Corpus Christi, TX 78410"; 78410 is Calallen, a rural, inland, far-northwest Corpus Christi ZIP unrelated to this coastal peninsula (which sits in ZIP 78402), so that figure was not used; the City of Corpus Christi's own "Notice About 2025 Tax Rates" document confirming the FY2025 adopted municipal rate of $0.599774 per $100 valuation, split into approximately $107.05 million for maintenance/operations and $62.44 million for debt service; news reporting (AOL/Yahoo News aggregating local coverage) citing Nueces County's own rate near $0.28 per $100, Del Mar College's 2024-25 rate of $0.26174 per $100, and a combined six-major-entity total near $2.21 per $100 for Corpus Christi; general, well-established Texas property tax law on the statewide 10% annual appraisal-increase cap for homesteaded property, the November 2023 constitutional Proposition 4 raising the school-district homestead exemption from $40,000 to $100,000, and the over-65/disabled homeowner school-district tax ceiling; and general reference to Texas as one of nine U.S. states with no state income tax. Not independently confirmed and not stated as fact here: the individual, current tax rates for the local independent school district, the Nueces County Hospital District, or any other special taxing district covering a specific Corpus Christi Beach parcel; the exact current assessed value, exemption status, or tax bill for any specific address; and any property-specific eligibility determination for the homestead exemption, the 10% cap, or the over-65 ceiling. Confirm all current figures directly with the Nueces County Appraisal District and the Nueces County Tax Assessor-Collector's office (including its published Truth-in-Taxation rate worksheets), and consult a qualified Texas tax professional before relying on any number here. Nothing on this page is legal or tax advice.