I am looking to get my first house in Houston which is a great deal going and lines up for my qualifications. The only thing is, the property is valued 40% higher compared to the purchase price with the Harris county appraisal district. It basically doubled since 2018/2019 with HCAD. So since the taxes way are at that higher value my lender is saying the taxes would disqualify this house for me.

Is there any way I could bypass this higher value? Is it possible to get the taxes down to purchase price? Could I protest it beforehand? What options are there?

This would be a FHA loan currently with 3.5% but I could go possibly go higher to about 12% down. I do have some debts I could pay off instead of bringing the down payment higher too.

Also I like this house because in 6 months or so I am looking to do a cash out refinance to take advantage of this equity.

The owner of the property can contest the valuation and attempt to get a tax reduction. You can't do that if you don't own the property. 

Oh HCAD. 

You could try to tell the bank “look at the bright side. According to the appraisal district I’m getting a great deal!”

some owners don’t protest their values. They LIKE seeing their home value go up. I’d just assume HCAD think all my stuff was worthelsss. 

Have you tried reaching out to different lenders? 

I recently purchased a home in Harris County as well and talked with a couple different lender before finding the right one. 

I would suggest talking with more lenders and explaining the situation to see if they would be able to lend based on your circumstance, not all lenders are created equally.