<p>The Texas assessments are accurate. We have no income tax but high property taxes, so the taxing authorities have an interest in keeping assessments high and the homeowners keeping them low. There is an easy and fair appeals process. The assessor’s office is very open and will provide you with the comparables they used, so you can decide whether to appeal or not. </p>
<p>Re declining markets, not here yet though we were never bubblicious to start with.</p>
<p>If one can be fairly certain of property valuation, We as a nation, our financial institutions, and you, wouldn’t be in a quandry. The finest and best financial minds in the world cannot answer your question. If there is a political answer, then we would have one by now. </p>
<p>I’d tour your neighbor hood and look for a comparable home that is for sale, and then knock off 10%, minimum. Its only a guess.</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter whether the Texas appraisals are accurate or not. Since it is a state law that they be ‘fair market value’ you would have a hard time justifying something different. In most areas, they still trail the market somewhat.</p>
<p>Next summer when the future college parents will try to get loans for college financing, …</p>
<p>Interesting exercise. I tried the four calculators mentioned and the difference between the low estimate (Federal Finaid calculator) and the high estimate (Zillow.com) was $120K! Unfortunately, I believe our local assessor relies on Zillow. He certainly hasn’t based his estimate on real world sales prices in our neighborhood. So I guess I’ll be using the average in January and will be scheduling a visit to “Grievance Day” in May.</p>
<p>Why aren’t you using the low (Federal) estimate? Don’t you just your government 
?</p>
<p>Most residential assessors use something similar to Zillow but far more based on local up to date comps put into an equation that produces the value estimate based upon a regression model. It only takes a handful of variables to get a good estimate for the typical homes. The assessment essentially computerized with only a bit of fine tuning by the actual assessor.</p>
<p>If you want a good estimate just pay $300 or so to hire a local appraiser and tell them what the purpose is. They are not that busy right now.</p>
<p>A reasonable, but somewhat tedious way to estimate the value of your house is to use the tax assessors valuation. Go get a list of the last seven or eight houses that have sold in your neighborhood, and compare the sales price to their tax assessment. Depending on what state you’re in, how long its been since the last reassessment, and a few other factors, you’ll get some idea of the ratio of current market value to assessment. Use that to calculate yours.</p>
<p>Be sure to use homes in your neighborhood, and near the same size, etc. In most economically diverse towns, the assessors play robin hood and underassess the smaller, older homes/neighborhoods, and shift more of the property tax burden to the higher income taxpayers.</p>