Got my annual tax appraisal today, and, once again, they claim my house somehow managed to avoid all the "housing crisis" stuff that's going on and increase in value by almost 12%. This happened while the builder who has been building our neighborhood went out of business and sold its remaining inventory at fire sale prices (the house they built at the end of our block sold for over 40% off their "list" price). We've got half-completed houses that have been abandoned and a few houses in foreclosure in the neighborhood. And yet, somehow, my house managed a nearly 12% increase. What bugs me the most about the valuations, though, is that they value the land for the lots still owned by the bankrupt builder at $20,000 (down $2,000 from last year), but they value the land for everybody else at $30,000 - the same as last year. I would think the empty lots would be worth more than the built-out lots. The empty lots are all potential. I could built a 2,000 sf home or a 1,100 sf home. But if you buy my land, you're stuck with the 1,200 sf home that's sitting on it. It also annoys me knowing that there are eight houses (including mine) identical to mine on my block. The one that sold most recently sold for $75,000. It was on the market for almost a year with the price slowly knocked down every couple of months (starting at $108,000). Clearly, the market price as of a year ago was $75,000. The next door neighbors used their sales contract to get their valuation knocked down to $75,000 as that was the market price. The tax office has that house that sold for $75,000 is now valued at $111,059. So the tax office actually believes that the market price of that home jumped nearly 50% in a single year. All while the only houses that sell in our neighborhood sell for fire sale prices and the average sales price for the city as a whole is down almost 5% over the last year. I know it's a ridiculous notion, but it should be the law that any valuation the tax office makes has to be backed up with an offer from the county to buy the house for that amount. Because I would sell our house in a heartbeat for the value they've placed on it. Heck, we've had the house on the market for a good deal than the "market" valuation they've placed on this house and we haven't received a single offer. I know I come on here every year and b**** about this very subject, but it just floors me every year because the tax office has to know their valuations aren't anywhere near reality. I assume they just figure most people won't protest. I don't mind doing the protesting. It's just relatively time consuming and it's annoying that I have to do it nearly every year (this will be the third time out of four appraisals since we've lived here).
After I filled out the protest form thingy (but before the hearing), I got a letter from the tax office telling me they made a mistake and offering to lower the appraised value back down to what it was last year without a hearing. So, that saved me some work, which is nice.
Oddly enough I got mine only a couple weeks ago. Dropped $25k. Not going to reduce my payments, though, I'm just going to put the difference against principle instead of into escrow.
My house is in a new construction neighborhood that has been doing mediocre, a little better than most neighborhoods I guess. At least they've been selling here and there. Anyways, they increased my "market value" about 22% with my "appraised" value capped at 10%. This is after I pretty much had my market value set at what I paid for the house in late 2007. Well, apparently my wife and I got too smart for our own good and built a less expensive house in a section of the neighborhood with more expensive houses (custom section). So now every year, the "comp sales" are going to drag our market value up despite us living in the least expensive house in the section. Anyways, I was able to fight it, go to a hearing, and get them to reduce it to a fair "market" value. The thing that irks me is that I'll have to go through this every year that I live in this house or I'm going to be screwed on my appraisal.
It's all a f%@#ing sham. They do this to everyone and if they get called out on it they go, 'My bad'. But imagine how many millions of dollars they make on people who just pay up. I hope they go to hell.
You could always be like me and have a $3,000 value for accessory value. My only accessory is a shed I paid $300 for from Lowes, and I put it up just over a month ago.
Protest this. Seriously, they'll probably just knock it off through the online submission process. My biggest beef with property taxes in general being based on market value, is its one of the few times that the government can actually tax you out of something. If you purchase a home for a reasonable price in a nice neighborhood, you may be screwed in 10 years if that neighborhood catches fire. Then you may not be able to afford to live in the home that you could easily afford 10 years earlier. I can't think of any other taxing system that can do this. With income tax, its a percentage of the money you are bringing in, so its reasonable to expect you can afford to pay them. With sales tax, you make the decision before the actual purchase whether or not you can afford it. Its purely a consumption tax. But with property tax, its something else entirely, you could potentially easily afford it now, but may not be able to afford it in the future if your market value increases over and over again. So its not realy an income tax, since if you make more or less money it doesn't affect your taxes. And its not really a consumption tax, since you "consumed" the property when you purchased it and the future "value" of the home determineds future taxes.
I'm not going to fight it because it isn't a big enough deal to me, but how they can value my house without entering it, or without seeing my house every year, how can they make any reasonable judgement on its value? Rising property taxes is actually why California has Prop 13, that many are blaming for their problems. Prop 13 sets your property value until it is sold/transferred. So you don't have that problem. I recall one family from that ABC show "Extreme Home Makeover" nearly losing their house because the taxes on it were so high.
You know you can online protest (too late for this year) by simply filling out a form and submitting it, right? It takes like 5 minutes. If they don't make an offer you can just decline to actually go in to a hearing. I protest everything every year. Because all those little bits they increase you compound in the future.
I was going to protest this year, but they reduced me $60k (a lot of foreclosures in my neighborhood) without my asking, which took the wind out of my sails.
Good Lord. I'd be happy, but at the same time... damn! I think mine went down for the first time. My appraisal value went down about $18k.
My overall property taxes are very good though. The undervalue of the house(I made substantial renovations inside the house) makes me not care that much about the accessory(which is actually related to a pool & shed that the previous owner had before he got foreclosed on. I would protest though if I lived in the county I work in. They have doubled some peoples property taxes. I need to check my city valuation though when I get it because they generally have a higher valuation.
