Discussions

I generally take a relaxed approach when I get tax assessment's and property tax bills, but I was bored so I decided to break down my 2016 tax assessment and was surprised to find that my property value jumped 16% since 2015.  
 
I must admit I knew my value would go up after replacing 2 old windows in the last year, but nearly $20,000 seems a little on the high side.  
 
What kind of percentage bump did everyone else see ?  
 

Mine went up 35%, haven't done any changes!!! Bitter Sweet lol

Annetta said "Changes/improvements to my property but I did combine my two lots into 1 roll number. That made my assessment drop by about 23%. Not sure why the same property is worth less if it is on one roll number instead of two?"

I have multiple lots also. Should I look into combining them to drop my assessment $? What are the pros and cons? Does it cost anything?  
 
Thanks.

No improvements to my property and the comparables in the neighborhood are all on the market for for 20% less then my new valuation. Same thing happened to a few others I have talked to. This is how they jack up the taxes a ridiculous amount but get away with saying they didn't raise taxes come election time.

When combined, lots are assessed less therefore less taxes. Smaller individual lots are easier to sell and more desirable than larger lots that would cost to subdivide. Call assessment and see if they can combine them.

Our home is up double digit percent too, but important to keep in mind that that doesn't mean your property tax will go up the same amount. Unless there's some kind of major increased expenses I'd start by assuming that it's likely the mill rate will be dialed back so that the end result is a tax increase within the bounds of the Mayor's campaign promise of trying to keep any increases at or below inflation.  
 
Exact quote from campaign release, which when speaking to increased assessment revenue I take to be mainly referring to new tax collected on new property builds:  
 
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"As Brandon grows, our assessment base grows,providing new tax dollars every year. The typical annual increase in the City’s assessment is 3%: meaning each year the City has an additional 3% in revenue. Those of us who do our household or business budgeting would likely find it pretty easy to do our budgets with an automatic increase of 3% in revenue. My main goal if elected will be to budget using the increase in assessment only. If increases in taxation are absolutely unavoidable, I will do my best to keep them at or below the rate of inflation."  
 
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So for the average person the most interesting thing will be whether on a percentage basis you are higher, lower or the same as the average increase in the city. Of course a big wrinkle in assessment years has been that commercial properties haven't gone up at the same rate as residential. Haven't looked into 2016 but if that ends up being the case again we could see residential taking up an increased piece of pie out of any city-wide increase that might be necessary.  
 
 
 
 
Edited by Adam, 2015-06-21 23:00:25

My house is "assessed" for about $20,000 more than I'd ever get for it. It says it's assessed comparable to other like houses in the same area but those houses have likely had recent updates so of course they are worth more than mine but now I have to pay taxes as though it's the same value. Not right. I could always have someone come assess it I guess. The more people who have their homes assessed the lower this.would probably be.

I got our assessment last week, and was surprised that it increased overall about $60,000, which is at least $30,000 over what I could even dream about asking for it. Additionally, we've had major issues with the house and will be spending the YEARS fixing it as we're doing the bulk of the work ourselves because that's what we can afford, basically have an unfinished basement etc.  
 
The lady says it's basically a computer algorithm that spits out the numbers based on data from 2013-2014 right now. They can also adjust based on the current condition of the home.  
 
Anyway, she's coming out tomorrow to have a look, and then it goes to a board to make the final valuation. It's the first time I've ever disagreed with my assessment enough to do something about it.

For a house that I bought in December. Assessment shows more than what I have bought the house and paid for that. Does it mean they will get much more property tax that I really deserve. I have paid whole lot of money and house prices are not low, then they want to tax me even more. should I appeal?