County Real Property Assessment

Astonishing!! I just received my house assessment, 18% increase over last year. I am floored.[B)]

 

I'm concerned -- our assessment is less than our purchase price (we just closed in July 2003).

 

You want your assessment to be less than the purchase price. The assessment is not the same as the market value of the property, all the assessment determines is what your property taxes will be. The higher your assessment, the more taxes you pay (the rate for Loudoun County is $1.11 per $100 of assessed value.)

I have owned several other properties in VA in the past, and the county assessment is always less than the actual market value. Believe me, this is a good thing.

Afgm, I don't know how you can complain that the county raised your assessment by 18% last year. I don't have the figures in front of me, but I'm pretty sure the market value of your home increased by at least that much last year. Everyone loves it when the retail value of their home increases year after year -- no one should be surprised when your property taxes increase to reflect this increased value...

 

Since I'm not planning on selling my home for the next thirty or more years, all it means is that I'm stuck for more taxes. I don't care one bit about the retail value of my home except as it pertains to my tax and insurance bills.

 

Sorry, but that's life. You don't expect the county to sit back as property values rise, and continue to tax you based on outdated property values, do you?

Property taxes are the main way the county raises revenue to pay for things like schools, fire/police services, and even traffic signals at places like...Claiborne/Waxpool roads!

Listen, I'm no "tax and spend" Democrat - I'm far from it. (I should add that I'm not a "no tax but still spend" (GW Bush) Republican, either.) But we all have to be reasonable. Real estate is a major investment, and recently, a very good one at that. Why should real estate be exempt from taxes, when you pay taxes on all of your other income?

And finally, if you are SO upset about paying property taxes, and if you really "don't care one bit" about the retail value of your home, why don't you just rent? You won't pay any property taxes, and renter's insurance is a lot cheaper than homeowner's insurance. I suspect that it's because you view ownership of real property as a good investment, which, like every other investment, is subject to taxation.

 

Don't get me wrong - I love the lower property taxes. I was just more concerned that the "perceived" market value of our house is $50-60K less than the price that we paid 8 months ago. And yes, I understand that the county assessment is not always accurate (primarily because they just look at the outside of the house and don't see the internal upgrades, which can add $$$$ to the value). But I am aware that some buyers try to use property tax assessment values as a bargaining chip in negotiations. In fact, I recall seeing a list of "pointers" on home buying that included researching the property tax assessment value.

 

I sure wish my salary would go up 18% per year as does my taxes! God bless america!
BTW, 4 years ago my house assessed at 220k, now its over 490k, I am almost certain the retail price of my home has not increased 120% in 4 years, LOL. I just hope State Farm doesnt increase my insurance by 50% again this year, without reason I might add...
Its getting too expensive to live around here anymore.[V]

DwArFlOrD

 

In my experience tax assessed value has little to do with how much money actually exchanges hands at settlement. I guess this can be positive or negative. Dwarflord are you sure your houses retail value has not increased 120% in the last four years? Our last one in Alexandria increased its retail value 100% in 3 years and we did FSBO! Of course the tax assessed value did not reflect that. Consider we could be spending a 900K for a townhouse in Arlington.

 

If your assessment went up 18%, your tax bill is going to be even higher than 18%. Don't forget that they are looking at raising the assement rate from $1.11 to $1.19.
My assessment went up 16.4%. The county average increase was 12%. I cannot believe that the higher end homes, those over $500,000, went up HIGHER than the county average. Generally, it is the more affordable, lower priced units, condos and townhouses, that have the highest percentage increase in value. I plan to challenge my new assessment.
In my example, the 16.4% increase in assessment coupled with the possible new tax rate of $1.19 means my tax goes from $5635 to $7035. That's a 25% increase!
In three years, my property tax on this house has increased 60%, while the value, if the assessment is accurate, increased 45%.
The rate of taxation is exceeding the rate of apppreciation by a significant margin.
But don't worry....it will probably only get worse over the next several years!

 

I live in a townhouse in the northern part of Broadlands, and my assessment went up about 11%. Based on a few recent sales in our group of townhomes, values have gone up at least 40% in a bit over 2 years. Given that, it sounds like I got off comparatively cheaply. Yikes!

I read the report about the proposal for raising the tax rate from $1.11 to $1.19 this year. Does anyone know what the process is for approving the tax rate? Who votes on it?

 

Ya, Im pretty certain, based on what Im seeing for sale on our street. I suspect that the initial assessment by the county (yr. 2000) was off (diff. of 140k based on assesed and retail values). My estimate for retail value over the last 4 years for us would be around 60-70%, which is still awesome - about 18%/yr. And that is a hopeful estimate on my part. Its done far better than my investments have(-60%) over last 3 yrs.
Now in my last home, I had it for 7 years and lost $2k when I sold it....townhouse in Stafford, so Im happier with the value of this house. Its just very expensive to live up here...[B)]

DwArFlOrD

 

Now this is an illuminating comment. [8]

The best assessment of property value is at time of sale and purchase. A direct reflection of the market. Why is this property assessed below that metric?

And on the other hand, my home, 10 years post a purchase/sale transaction is "subjectively" assessed at an increase of 18%.

If I were to follow PatsFan logic, wouldn't both homes need to reflect market value? Something isn't right.

 

Now this is an illuminating comment. [8]

The best assessment of property value is at time of sale and purchase. A direct reflection of the market. Why is this property assessed below that metric?

And on the other hand, my home, 10 years post a purchase/sale transaction is "subjectively" assessed at an increase of 18%.

If I were to follow PatsFan logic, wouldn't both homes need to reflect market value? Something isn't right.

 

I agree that ideally (from an accuracy standpoint), the tax value of a property should equal its market value. For some reason, though, that does not seem to be the case. I have not attempted to explain why -- I have just noted my observations after 10 years of home ownership in 3 different parts of VA.

Maybe the mechanism used to determine "tax value" lags the actual market value. Suppose your tax value is determined by averaging the monthly market values of your home over the last 12 months (sort of like dollar-cost averaging in the stock market)? In a market where home values increase every month, the market value of your home will necessarily be more than the tax value at the time that you receive the assessment. Of course, the drawback to a formula like this, is that if you house value begins to drop, your tax value will be more than your market value at the time you receive the assessment.

But enough of my rambling thoughts...

I don't know why they are different, they just are. All I am saying is that you have to take the good with the bad: if the value of your home increases, expect to pay an increase in property taxes based on that increased value. (Here's another quick analogy: your "car tax" goes down each year that you own your car, because the state/county takes depreciation of your car into consideration. I don't see anyone complaining about that!!!)

 

Home assessments, like personal property assessments, are often set at approximately 80% of "fair market value". Once municipalities close in on a 100% figure, citizens become irate and start bombarding the taxing agency with complaints about "value" which only cost more for the taxing agency to try and defend. By the way, apparently not all assessments rose. My 2004 assessment decreased by 3% from 2003 and I'm stunned. With the tax rate most likely going up to 1.19/100 the actual tax amount will rise, but nevertheless I never thought an assessment on my home in Broadlands would decrease....Must be the Verolan antenna they put on my roof last year.

 

Where can I get those antennas, I want a few of them.[}]

 

<rant>
I personally wouldn't mind so much the TAX increase, if the money stayed in Loudon county. What gets me is Richmond's keeping over 80% of our taxe dollars. I would rather see our tax dollars put to good use here in Loudon County vs. going to Southern VA.
</rant>

 

Well, we could be in Maryland and pay both state AND county taxes...

 

We are in a single family in Southern walk, closed/moved in mid-August. I figured they would save themselves the effort of doing a reassesment on our place since we just had the sale records to go off of. HA! We got hit with a 22% increase over what we paid for the place in August less than 6 month later.

In Fairfax COunty our assesment, even after a recent sale or refinance, was always under market value by a little. I knew better than to complain

We moved to Loudoun excited about the lower rate. How naive we are, huh?!