<p>So with the value of real estate declining, has anyone tried to get their assessment lowered?</p>
<p>I successfully challenged my last assessment (4 yrs ago?) and had it reduced some. Then appealed to the next level and had it reduced significantly. Our town is about to do another assessment and I’m anticipating going through the whole process again.</p>
<p>Did you do it yourself or hire a lawyer that specializes in this area?</p>
<p>Either way. The typical home assessment delta won’t pay for much lawyering (not to mention expert valuation opinions, which in theory you need).</p>
<p>I challenged mine a few years ago. Not the actual number – it would have been hard to prove that it was too high – but on the assessment relative to comparable homes in my neighborhood, including two within two blocks that had been built from the same set of plans as my house. Also, that an unfinished, uninhabitable attic was treated as usable space. I did it myself, with a large map and photos of the comparable houses, and information on their assessments from the city website. I got the assessment lowered about 15%, which still left it high, but felt like a victory. </p>
<p>But note that I am a lawyer, and a tax lawyer to boot. So maybe a little more comfortable for me. If you want to do this, and you have the time, go watch a few hours of assessment appeals, and you will get a much better sense of how it goes. It ain’t rocket science, but you need evidence (unless you are an impoverished little old lady).</p>
<p>Typically, there is only a small window of time in which you can challenge your assessment. Not a chance of changing it if you don’t file your appeal during that period.</p>
<p>Tax boards are well aware that assessments lag the market, both on the way up and on the way down. When the market was rising, no one was withdrawing appeals, saying, “This assessment was too high as of July 1, its date, but in the last six months there have been a whole bunch of comparable sales at higher numbers.” No, they were arguing strenuously that any sales after July 1 were irrelevant. Now, of course, everyone wants to get the fact that real estate values have declined precipitously in the past 8-10 months built into assessments that were supposed to reflect values last spring. I don’t expect that to work easily.</p>
<p>I did it myself, just went to town hall and looked up sales comps that supported my argument of lesser value better than the sales comps used by the company hired by the town to do the valuations. It was not too difficult. The town seemed to give an automatic discount to the first challenge. I am not sure if my second challenge was accepted because of my brilliant arguments or because I very politely asked “what happens after this?” “Do I get a lawyer and sue?” The staff in the assessors office seemed a little startled by my question, and told me that had never happened before but would be the next step. It is possible that because I have a bit of a reputation as a very small time local trouble maker from the time when my kids attended the high school they may have decided it was easiest and cheapest to just give me what I wanted. Since all the revaluations were really unsupportable, and resulted in the election of a new mayor the next year I imagine they thought it just wasn’t worth the headache if I followed through. This is a very small town.</p>
<p>My assessment was lowered about 25% from the town’s first revaluation figure, which when all was said and done with mill rates kept my property taxes just about the same. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I did it myself – but I had all the data. We’d just built the house and didn’t challenge on the value of the house, but rather on the value of the building lot. It just happened that we purchased our lot <em>during</em> the reference period and paid the <em>average</em> lot price. Then, the assessor tried to value our lot at double the average price. Since I had looked at, and walked, every building lot in town in the process, I knew more about the land values. I was able to get the land assessment knocked down substantially.</p>
<p>For about $350 you can hire your own local appraiser and get the info you need to make a good case.</p>
<p>I did mine – I was able to appeal by fax. Sent in no comps – just said housing prices were down in our area. Assessment decreased by more than 10%!!! Others in our neighborhood did the same (that’s how I knew it was so easy to appeal). Northing to lose, I figured.</p>
<p>It’s a fairly easy DIY in CA and also to get reasonable comps on line. We’ve done it before, twice successfully, by submitted paperwork and no need to show for a hearing to appeal our analysis.</p>
<p>In fact, since we just refinanced our house and requested a copy of the appraisal, I just realized we now have in hand the comps used for that. I’ll need to check ours to make sure it’s in sync, since the value was adjusted for a major remodel that we did last year, so it can include extra value for the new space but was not to include costs for maintenance things like re-roofing (except, for example, roof over the new space.)</p>
<p>The work itself is within DIY capabilities. Whether the appeals board listens may depend on whether there is an ESQ behind your name. Be sure to check on when appeals can be heard. In our town there’s a 30-day window beginning some point after each revaluation. Miss that and you’re SOL (in our town).</p>
<p>I just purchased a new home in Michigan. It was purchased for less than it had been assessed for.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, in the state of Michigan even if your home value decreases, they will not lower your taxes. Apparently, it’s a state law.</p>
<p>Got to love it.</p>
<p>I’ll let you know in May if my challenge is successful. Our home was getting regularly reassessed 10-20% per annum between 2003 and 2007. I couldn’t pull together enough documentation last Spring to “prove” that home values were decreasing, but shouldn’t have too much trouble this year. A neighbor’s home was recently sold after being on the market for 3 years at 40% less than its assessed value. That’s a start. How much impact it will have on our tax bill is another question.</p>
<p>So, here in CA, I thought we just needed to fill out a form. Will providing additional info such as sales comps help? The prices of homes in our area have plummeted!</p>
<p>Where we live, there are businesses that provide this service. Last year, we challenged our assessment and used one of these companies. The cost was ~$800 and we saved ~$6000 in taxes so it was well worth it.</p>
<p>If the market value of your home for some strange reason has declined more than your neighbors’, by all means go for a reval. But otherwise aren’t you just trying to pay less than your fair share of property taxes? Local governments need property tax revenue to operate, so in theory if all property values double the local government can cut the tax rate in half and still keep revenue constant. The flip side is they may need to raise tax rates as property values decline if they lower assessments to real market values.</p>
<p>I do not think a reassessment will be possible unless you can prove that your neighborhood was impacted more than the rest of the municipality. The property assessment is merely a way to equitably apportion municipal cost among all property owners. As long as your property is assessed in the same fashion as other muni propeties, no reassessment is necessary.</p>
<p>My brother’s town just had a general reassessment and was surprised that his haxes went up a lot more than his neighbors. I explained that in a general reassessment the average tax increase should be ZERO as long as the muni budget remains the same. Now some properties will go up more than others because of improvements made between assessments while homes build after the last assessment will sometimes actually see there taxes decreased.</p>
<p>Having said all of this, you may as well give it a shot and some tax assessors will throw a few bucks your way just to avoid a formal appeal.</p>