I recently received the my property tax assessment. It said that my land value went down, but my home value went up. Can someone explain how this works? My house is 3 years old. I haven't made any noticeable improvements. There is a lot of new home building going on around my area on the Grand Parkway. I'm just not sure how these things are figured out.
I'm not sure how they can explain the land value going down, but they usually raise the home value by taking the average values of comparable homes in your area for the last year...then getting a price per square foot estimate...then applying that price per sqare foot to your home. If you disagree with the value, protest! One of my Dad's appraisers said you should protest every year, whether you went up, down or stayed the same...you can almost always get a little lower if you make a good case.
where I live, they lowered the tax rate per $1,000 value, but increased the valuation of the property. So in the end, the property tax amount increased. Someone from the city goes around and determines the valuations. I see my bill of $4,500 and I'm ready to call for revolution. Then my sister tells me she pays over $9,000 in New Jersey and still has to pay for trash pickup.
To be honest I have no idea if it's fair or not and wouldn't know how to protest anyway. Me: Hey, I protest. I think your appraisal is way off. Them: Why? Me: I don't know, just because.
You would think. It's a standard 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage, tiny yard. And it's not that close to civilization. This cost of housing was really shocking to her especially since she built her house in Missouri for like $80K and paid property tax in the hundreds.
They'll tell you how to protest when you file the application to protest. Plus, you can rely on the sage advice of the BBS. I protested the last 2 years, but with the new baby, I'm not going to do it this year. Which sucks since I know they will raise my valuation every year by the maximum they are allowed. They were only able to raise me 10% this year because of the homestead exemption. My first year, they doubled the valuation, the second year, raised it over 50%, before I beat them with protests.
I would hate to think my propety tax if my house were moved to her area. I guess it is a good thing I am living in the middle of corn fields in Indiana.
My appraised value for my property from one of the counties that taxes me was $27,000 over what I paid for the house at the end of this past November. Needless to say, I asked them to bring that value down... which they obliged. Now I have to go talk to the other county's offices and ask them to bring their appraisal value down about $17,000.
Didn't you guys need a good reason to protest the appraised values? Last year I protested and I used the sale prices of comparable houses around my neighborhood. I haven't been able to come up with that data this year. I understand it is public record but it is so hard to find.
The appraisal district will let you look at the data they keep at their office. I'm not sure if you really need a good case. My first year, I had a great case and beat them at a hearing. The second year, my case wasn't too solid, by the woman who ran my prelim meeting was obliging and found some way to calculate a lower valuation. You certainly won't get anything if you don't ask. Btw, in Harris county, you have about a week left to file your protest. After that, you are SOL.
Harris County lays down when you protest your value. It took my wife all of 5 mins with the appraiser to get our home value down $25,000 (in fact, my wife even cooked our #s basked on our research and they paid no attention to it). Saved us $900
Holy Crap that's high! What would y'all pay (generally) for ptax including garbage pick up, school tax, muni tax, etc on an "average" house?
Mine was a new construction. I closed in November of last year. I just showed them my closing statement. She looked at it for 10 seconds and said "wow, you must've gotten a great deal on this house". I said "yeah". She said "ok, that'll do it... I just need to make some copies before I make the adjustment and you're set".
This year our property tax will be about $8400 and that does not include garbage pickup or any services. Luckilly property tax is deductible (if you can avoid the Alternative Minimum Tax).
How can it be that soon? They haven't even finished posting all the appraisals. EDIT: Just checked the HCAD website. If they haven't finished your appraisal, your protest date will be on your notice...it will be 30 days after they post your appraisal.
In the Dallas counties, your deadline should be on the notice they send you. It usually says something like it's due by the end of the month unless you received after May 2nd, blah blah blah.
question from first time home owner. i purchased my home at the beginning of the year for a price that was about $47k less than what the appraised value is. when i protest this should my reason for protest be "Value is over market value"? i know i need to have copies of my closing statements to show how much i paid for the house. is there anything else i need to do?
unless similar houses around you also sold for $47K less, then you are going to have a hard time basing it soley on what you bought it for
