Ask:
Our house value just went up $10,000 in one year! I know I have to contact the county assessor's office to review to protest, but I don't know on what grounds to protest it. (The exact wording is: Statement of the reasons why a reduction in value should be made. Please provide evidence supporting your requested value.)
I know that tons of houses in our county have increased in value, but I don't know why. We haven't done anything to our house except put up curtains!
If anyone has any advice or websites to go to for advice, please let me know!
Thanks,
Darci
Answer:
HI. I went through this about 5 years ago. They re-assessed and DOUBLED the value of our home. The gentleman I worked with was great. He said that if people dont think thier home is valued at that, he generally is flexible. Of course, this may not be your case. When I went in to see him, I had made a list of what was wrong with the house. It was like: there are cracked windows, we have a fuse box with 40 amps, electrical is original to the house, etc. He was great, put it right back where it was. I urged him to come look at it with me if he wanted to! !
You can look online for comparable homes in your area, and, find out how much they sold for. or are assessed at. You can do a comparison and take it to the auditor. Often, you will find that the other houses your home is compared to are in perfect condition, or, they have features yours dont. Of course, if your house is new, then, I dont really know. The impression I got (this is in Wisconsin) was that if you are going to fight that it isnt worth it, they will basically lower it.
Hope that helps!
Amanda
Answer:
I don't know. I tried to fight mine when it went up. They laughed at me, literally. Their comeback was: Isn't your house worth it? What would it sell for? I don't give a hoot what it will sell for. I'm not seeing any increase in my pocket now! I think it's totally unfair. My house's value has tripled and I'm afraid we are going to be taxed out of it. It's sooooo senseless; especially when you don't see the taxes going for good things.
Answer:
Our state has a restriction on property taxes that says they can't go up more than 3% a year. The way the government gets around that is by raising our assessments. Our house value went up $23K over last year and our land value went up over $67K! Our homeowner's excemption went up slightly but our taxes still went up $740 over last year. That's over $60 a month!
The problem is, traditionally, assessments are 80% of what you could sell your house at - and the assessment is right on target.
Yeah, we haven't done many improvements either. That doesn't stop the house - and land - selling for more.
Answer:
Our town just reassessed all the houses in town. It took about 2 years and everyones tax bill has now gone up at least $1000.00 if not more. When we talked about fighting it the secretary in the office said that it would not do much good. They will basically laugh at you. Also, be careful if you are going to fight it. A friend of ours fought it because his house is over 20 years old and not in the best of shape. When the assessor came back to look at the house he said that our friend was right the assessment was wrong. A second bathroom had not been added into the original assessment so his taxes would go up even more. We just gave up and paid our taxes. We budget for it anyways.
Answer:
Yeah it may be that your home hasn't been assesed recently our house value was 114K the first year, 136K the next and 169 K this last year. We had a fair market annlyis done by the realitor who helped us buy our home. He compared other houses that were similar to our and told us our house was worth 185, (appreciated 50K in just 3 years) That was the same number we got when our home was appraised to remove pmi.
Really you need to know exactly what your house is worth. The market annlysis was free I would do that first to see if you have grounds to stand on.
In my area houses continue to rise in price by about 10% and the new median house price is $469K