Property tax assessments - anyone getting theirs lowered?
 

Trying to get these down as obviously the prices in the US are falling so why pay more taxes then we have to.

I wish but prices haven't fallen to bad around here.

Paid around 50k for 12 houses. the average assessed value is 110k. Got a ways to negortiate i think :)

its funny they seem quick to assess on the way up but slow on the way down.

of course when all that money is coming into your county/state they never want to drop em back down.

Nope, our rent actually went up b/c property taxes were raised 19% on average in our neighborhood.

Just got the letter yesterday.

Assessed property value went down 53,000 from last year. Included was a letter saying "even though your assessment may go down your tax bill does not automatically decrease"

Nice

There is in fact a silver lining in this mess.... My house has dropped in value by 50%. My property taxes and homeowners insurance is rolled in with my mortgage, and last month we got a nice letter saying that our monthly mortgage is going to drop by $750 because of property taxes and insurance drops.

Nice.

Actually thats a very good idea.:thumbsup:thumbsup I think people just accept taxes and think nothing can be done about them ?

there are attorney's that specialize in this find one in your area.

I filed protests and had a few of mine lowered and the rest stayed the same - but the property is still worth less than what they reaccessed them for. My favorite are two lots I have that are completely landlocked and can't be built on unless you own my house. They accessed them at $25K each for 2/3 an acre. Riiiiiiight.....

Unfortunately it would still cost the same to rebuild my house and replace the contents so I can't lower my insurance.

What's the process of having your property re-assessed for property tax purposes?
WG

Here we have an online form you can fill out. I did mine in writing because I attached an Excel spreadsheet one of my realtor neighbors put together to show previous actual selling prices along with descriptions (views, waterfront, basic, etc.) for comparison.

And what does the city do, do they send over an appraiser or do they only compare local sales within similiar types of houses in your area?
WG

Mine is done by the county, but they didn't come back out - they just went by averages. There was a massive uproar because a very large percentage of the properties went up 200-300% at a time when sale prices were actually going down. We even made the Atlanta news :thumbsup

My subdivision sent out a template to protest and from what I've read around 90% of the county protested. I suspect they did as little real investigating as they could. For instance I have 2 lots next to each other. One is buildable, one is not. But they accessed them at the same price and at an absurd amount. I protested and they lowered the amount but kept them the same as each other when obviously they aren't worth the same.

Ours have started to drop, but it seems the county/state has figured out a way to make up for the difference...raise fees for all other services. Fuckers!

Here we are able to just make an informal phone call to start it but I am looking for a big drop so I will have to go all the way to court.

how does that happen without a reappraisal?