2007 Real Estate Assessments

Down $92K. They were way high last year. I should have put up a stink.

 

Ours didn't go down by as much as you all. Only a small decrease.

 

Check it out: ours went down $101,100 !!!

 

We're down 59K.

 

Down $42K which translated to about $70/month less in the monthly mortgage payment this year for taxes.

 

I know everybody is celebrating about the lower Assessments. Well your school board is about to rain on this parade. Their run away spending is about to crash this party. The county board is almost certain to raise the tax rates to make up the difference. So your house is worth in some cases 20% less or even less then that and the new tax rate could put many of you back into shock. Too bad they haven't built that hospital yet in the Broadlands, many may need it when they see this years taxes. You don't see the county board trying to hard to squeez the school board. The school board just recenty requested millions more then previous and I have not seen one supervisor scream about it much if at all.

They may have to raise the tax rate 15 to 20% just to stay even with last year and the school board is seeking a substantial increase over last year so the rate could even go higher. This does not count the increase in county services such as police and fire etc.

Lee j

 

In this article they are promising only a 5% increase in the tax rate and are setting up a new tax district for fire and rescue, which is going to show separate on our tax bills. It will be interesting to see what happens.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/05/AR2007010502516.html

 

Interesting. Looks like mine stayed exactly the same. But, I'm in a TH and those assessments didn't get as inflated as single-family homes.

 

Mine dropped $59.5K (7.6%), and I estimate it to be about 3% above market value, so I won't quibble.

 

Thanks for the tip.


Mine also went down over 65K........Now lets hope the tax rate also makes us all smile.....

 

Get that frown ready!!!!

 

The current Board of Supervisors will be doing the frowning if they pass a tax hike. Loudoun wastes enough of our money as it is. If they pass a tax hike asking for more money to waste, can you imagine how fast they would be kicked out?

 

Mine went down $90K about 13%.

For those that have checked out your home values on Zillow.com. I'm Curious how this will affect zillow.com estimates. If I remember correctly from last year, as soon as Zillow input Loudoun county info into its database, the Zestimate of my house went up quite a lot. If the same holds thing holds true the Zestimate of my house to drop by a lot.

Mike

 

Well folks they want to increase the tax rate to 97.5 which for many will mean a higher tax bill even tho your assessment has gone down. The main culprit is the school system. We all want our kids to get a good education but there is got to be a limit on the taxes and they need to stay within a realistic budget.

For the people that don't want to see more commercial and higher density. Think again it will actually help the tax and road situatiion. Our problem is, there is way too much suburbia here. Thank god we are running out of land to build more. Suburbia always equals tons of kids and pressure on the school system. I love kids but there are way too many here to have a balanced enviorment Which again puts much pressure on the children too much competiveness too much pressure on the limited programs and local resources for them and hurts the children that need more nuturing. Too much of a good thing. Also with the high cost of living here many families have bith parents working which leaves many homes available for impromtude after school get togethers as mention in the bad teenager thread. I know in my neighborhood I never have seen so many unwatched kids and see many things the parents don't because I work at home in a glass house on a corner lot ha ha ha

Anyway that is for another thread, this is about our taxes going up again inspite of the lower assessments.

http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2007/02/13/news/new03budget021307.txt

Lee j

 

Thanks for the post Lee. My cousin in Leesburg mentioned he had heard about the 97.5 figure but I couldn't find a link for it. If this rate holds, my taxes will actually go down by about $200/yr. I guess that's the bright side of dropping 14% in value.

 

My taxes will go up $84.
Note that the biggest chunk that was cut out of the bill was the CIP for building schools. I'm fairly certain we are going to need those schools. So, during an election year, a plan was done to show a minimal tax increase. Guess what's going to happen next year or the year after when those schools are needed? A BIG increase!!

 

There is an incorporated town in North Dallas called Addison Texas . A lot of major commercial in that little town, and guess what they have more tax money then they know what to do with. When I Lived there the police dept drove volvos and the chief had a Mercedes. The moral of the story commercial and density produces big tax dollars. Suburban style neighborhoods put a drain a services and especially schools. I know I sound like a broken record, but if the mega commercial projects like one loudoun don't get off the ground our taxes will increase over and over. We will not see major apprciation in our homes for many many years so the county does not have much option but to raise taxes.

Vadcliff is right and they they are messing with the budgets putting things on the back burner and eventually these things such as new schools will have to be paid for. So expect taxes to go up up up over the next years with not much appreciation to ofset the rate. Another words the county refuses to hold the school board to a tight budget. Why??? Because the board has a powerful weapon and scare tactic called your children. They are holding your children hostage for unneccssary programs and other things that only benefit very few. Great tactic and hard to fight when it comes to the children. It makes them get away with almost anything by holding your chidren hostage so they can waste money on foolish programs that benefit very very few.. THose are type of things that need to be addressed and are not. Hey everybody thinks there is a bottomless pit of money here so if parents want these little extras then they should pay for them seperately. Right even one is rich in Loudoun so it should be no problem.

Other districts have a many kids that they subsidize for many things such as lunches and programs. Loudoun does not have many kids that need to be subsidized so when you compare budgets per kid it is not apples to apples between the school districts. These are the little things the school board does not make us aware of.

Lee j

 

Lee and others--

We concur with your "assessment" (taxing though it may be--ha-ha!!) regarding the real estate taxes. It is after all a "shell game" that government entities deals with our monies for schools, taxes, etc.
At least, we do not house our students in a "trailer village" like our former Gwinnett County, Georgia (where we are originally from) currently has to do for their student population.

Gwinnett County, Georgia has a SPLOST Tax (a value-added tax) that ALL of Georgia's jurisdictions votes on for needed infrastructure for schools, park and rec centers, and other needs. Of course, the housing market in Atlanta metro has seen unprecedented growth in the last five to ten years and has slowed somewhat recently. The job market is improving for professionals and is different than the market here in the metro DC, VA, and MD areas. It is a "trade-off" no matter where you reside. The economy shrinks and expands each five to ten year cycle it seems.

We will need the new schools and other infrastructure that a "growing pains" district needs. That is why we chose (purposefully) to enroll our kids in a private school that has grades Pre-K through 12th grade. Yes, not all families choose this way--it is an individual choice which we respect. We did not want our kids moving around to various clusters and be bussed far from home. Yes, our real estate taxes and other taxes pays for public schools and other viable resources that we all enjoy in our county.

Those residents who financed their homes with an Interest Only (IO) loan are now having to auction off their homes because of the slowing residental market. Of course, the market will rebound at a more realistic pace. It happened in metro Atlanta and will do so here in Northern Virginia areas. Here is hoping--oh well!!

Have a good Valentine's Day "ya'll"- we will! Be safe in driving conditions--

Foodie

 

Foodie we all in the building business are very concerned about those interest free loans and adjustable rates that people got. Nobody knows how much damage that is going to do to the already fragile market. There has been a lot of talk about that in my industry, especially because home prices are still dropping which it makes it really hard for them to refinance if at all. Could cause an even bigger downturn then anyone thought. We will see!!!

I know we need the new schools it is the waste and bad expensive designs that bother me. I was involved on the committee for the new design of my kids school in Santa Monica and we worked very hard to keep the costs down yet come up with an exciting design that worked and was fun for the kids.

I don't see that being done around here. Most of the school designs are boring and expensive. Many of these architects are like many government architects or government designed projects. just get it done no matter what. God is not in the details as Mies Van der Rohe said it is in the big picture. Just look at any of Mies's buildings and they are ugly mostly exposed steel and glass in simple shapes many of the time.

Lee j.

Lee j.

 

Right on Lee. When I bought my house in 2005 right around the peak the broker was trying to talk me into the interest only loans. Having seen so many people get burnt in the tech crash a few years earlier because of the "it can only go up" attitude I was scared to even consider the interest only option since it for the most part assumes the same. Unfortunately I have a couple friends who also bought around then with the interest only so they could get a little bigger house. Well now they are the scared ones sitting in a house they can barely afford, fearing the gov't is making them more "house poor" by raising taxes, and the home value going down at the same time. Come 3-5 years, assuming they've held on, they are going to have to refinance thanks to the short-term of the loans. For their sake, I truly hope the rebound gets back to 2005 levels by then so they can at least walk away without a loss. In my opinion the interest only loans were so short sighted and had the same "it can only go up" attitude. Too bad so many people didn't see it as such.