property value

[truckracer]

Hey guys, I was just wondering what any of you think about this, or have had any experience. I have an attorney if needed but I thought some of you may have some experience with this type of situation.

I would never try to hold anyone accountable for any advice or information given on this forum.

Personal opinions is what i am after here.

In the neighborhood that I live, it is along a main highway. Several years ago this area was zoned for both business and commercial use of property.
I have a very old house in near perfect condition that was completely renovated a little of 10 years ago with a lot of improvements. We completely rewired, plumbed, drywall, insulation, landscaping, gazebo, decks, pond, fountains, landscape lighting, new electrical service, HVAC with UV and hepa filtration.

I have an apraisal for my house that is about 4 years old.
recently the county sent me a notification saying my property value was re-assessed. In the past the value always went up. This time the county's assesed (i guess that is how you spell it), is about 1/3 of what my private appraiser set my property value as.

Interesting enough I know several people downtown and a developer is wanting to buy the entire block and build a strip mall.

I am getting suspicious that this devalued assesment is going to try to screw us all on this block when the buyout time comes.

I am not expecting to get unfairly rich off selling my house when the time comes but I need a fair price to replace the house with an equally nice one.

I have never known of the county to lower everyones values so they can pay less property taxes in all my history of being in this city/county.

What do you guys think?

 

[Kevinw]

Property values have dropped everywhere. If your truly curious hire an appraiser.
Also go here Real Estate, Homes for Sale - Zillow They are pretty accurate.

 

[snathanb]

.

I have never known of the county to lower everyones values so they can pay less property taxes in all my history of being in this city/county.

What do you guys think?

In the 8 years I've been in my house, the appraisal has gone down twice, and up 6 times. It fluxuates with the market.

Around here, the county doesn't actual appraise individual properties, they do sampling and apply formulas based on the price of home sales in the area.

Since I have no plans of selling my house in the foreseable future, I'm always grateful for a drop in appraised value so I can save a little on the tax bill.

 

[navychop]

Zillow is great.

One third? And in Charleston WV? I smell a rat. I don't think WV allows local governments to take over your land (condemn/eminent domain) and hand it over to someone for commercial economic development.

Don't sell. Not at one third of it's value. I think the average in hard hit areas is something like a 40% drop in home values.

Plus, I'd trust a private appraiser much more. Often, assessments are adjusted by a set percentage for an area, with little or no concern given to an individual property. You could appeal, but it's not in your interest to do so, unless you wish to sell.

 

[HD MM]

Zillow is just a guess. Take it with a grain of salt.

I use to work as a mortgage broker a few years ago and it was quite amazing at seeing the differences between Zillow or other online property estimates to an actual appraisal.

 

[HD MM]

I have never known of the county to lower everyones values so they can pay less property taxes in all my history of being in this city/county.

I've never heard of this either.

It's actually funny. Most areas home values have gone down, yet this is the first I've heard of a city/county lowering the value with in return decreases your property taxes.

Until you want to sell, I wouldn't question it though. As long as you stay at the home, you're benefiting.

 

[navychop]

Fairfax County VA has been lowering assessments.

Zillow is probably the best source that pretty much covers all urban/suburban areas. They are not completely accurate, but they are good for giving you a good idea. More than you'll likely get anywhere else.

 

[SamCdbs]

In WV:

The assessment for tax purposes is supposed to be 60% of the actual value. This is a tax break that dates back to Gov. Underwood that they never have been able to repeal.

The amount of the tax assessment is NOT ADMISSABLE in court in litigation about eminant domain.

So do not worry and enjoy paying less taxes.

 

[bhelms]

Your assessed value has no bearing on the true market value of the property, only its value in relationship to other properties in the taxing authority's jurisdiction. Your taxes could go up or down as a result of the reassessment. It's not just the assessed value that counts, but also the applied millage, with the product of the two determining the tax. The local millage will be adjusted up or down immediately following a reassessment, then adjusted periodically (like annually) thereafter, usually only upwards, until the next assessment. Most taxing authorities will set the new millage so the total tax is "revenue neutral" immediately following the reassessments. (But of course that never lasts!) So at that point the total property tax revenue is unchanged, but some property owners pay more and some less, and many are about the same - or at least that's the story line!

In our local area the last reassessment about 10 years ago set the value of all properties for tax purposes at 50% of the market value (as determined by the assessors) at the time. The actual percentage is completely arbitrary. Those assessed values will remain constant until the next complete reassessment, which will probably be in about 15 more years. In theory, significant improvements or changes made to a property, like adding a garage or new addition, will cause a reassessment for that one property in the interim; those are triggered by building or zoniing permits.

The only real concern you might have at this point is how your property was assessed. i.e., was the correct formula applied, how does it compare to essentially identical properties, etc.? Assessed values are public record, and you should have access to the details of the assessment of your own property to make the comparison. You should also be concerned about how your property is currently zoned. If zoned commercial, for instance, you could be paying a much higher tax than for the same property that's zoned residential. But of course a commercial property has a much higher potential value as well. Incidentally, for taxation purposes the age and condition of the house, landscaping, improvements like the OP listed, etc., have little bearing on the assessed value. The formulas consider total square footage, number of rooms, garage or not, lot size, etc. as the major factors. (All those improvements can factor greatly into the appraised value of course, but not so much if at all in the assessed value.)

Period reassessments of all properties within a taxing jurisdiction are good. They help level the field so we are all paying fair amounts of property tax. But they also cost considerable taxpayer money to be performed, so they should only be done when a considerable imbalance is evident...

 

[Ramy]

I know that values of houses in general in the WV/Eastern KY area have not gone down much if any for the most part because they never had the upswing that other areas had over the last 15 years. What part of Charleston do you live in? I didn't know there was any plans to put a strip mall in, other than the old Kanawha City mall.

 

[TNGTony]

In Hamilton Co, OH in a regular ol' neighborhood my home value dropped 10% this year even after improvements. A couple of my neighbors' houses went down as much as 25% in assessed value. To be brutally honest, the assessed values are NOW what I consider to be fair. The county assessed value of my house in now exactly what I paid for it 18 months ago. Not the inflated price they had, or the super-inflated price the seller had originally. (That's one of the reasons the property was vacant for 18 months before I bought the place)

My house was IMHO overvalued before. When I see these "flip" shows with people buying a 1500 foot bungalow-style home for a quarter million and selling for $350,000 after cleaning the house, I am amazed how ANYONE can afford to buy a house when they are triple what any sane person should consider paying for that property! But that's another argument.