Real Estate Taxes

Wow! Our assessment went down 14.7% for 2008. I guess now they'll have to raise the tax rate to at least $1.10/100 for them just to break even over last year.

 

To break even on your house alone yes. Last year my value dropped over 16% which was greater than the increase in tax rate so my tax bill actually dropped some but I think overall for the county taxes increased slightly. This year my value dropped only about 6%, so I do expect to see my tax bill to go up slightly.

 

i didn't get mine yet....can't wait. maybe i'll stop and get a bottle of Jack on my way home to wallow in my decision to buy a house when i did

 

http://inter1.loudoun.gov/webpdbs/default.htm

Enter your addy on this site

 

and kill the suspense of getting it from my mailbox????

 

can't find information for my address

 

It should be there. Are you leaving off the type of street? I believe it fails if you don't. For example, enter only "12345 Waxpool" if your address is 12345 Waxpool Road.

 

AHHH, that worked...and the price is alot lower than last year

 

I am not sure my 6% drop is that far off once you factor in the last two years. This time last year I was looking at over a 16% drop. The assessment seems on par with recent sales of similar homes. Did your house drop much last year possibly?

 

Is anyone going to appeal?

Has anyone had success in the past with an appeal?

 

hmmm, ours is not posted yet.

found it.

 

ouch...last year they gave me $5K off...this year they gave me 120K off....that was nice.

 

I was so put out by the assessments last year, because they were so unreal.

So I appealed last year - they lowered it by $79k, exactly as I requested. I emailed the assessor and then he assigned me a guy, who I was able to follow up with till the end/outcome of my assessment review. I also mailed my appeal.

That is also why my assessment is just lower by $10k this year.

 

Was it fairly simple to gather all the information for the appeal? Were you able to get it all from the county's tax assessment website?

 

I think they may be close to accurate this year. We just had an appraisal done and the assesment was within $1000.

 

It was. I just used their assessment website - I looked at the townhouses nearby (I am in a SW townhome) where there were sales in 2006. My street had no sales, so maybe that's why they did not re-assess.

I did a spreadsheet/comparison thingee. I even included an ad from Van Metre selling NEW townhomes at a much lower price than my assesment.

Hope that helps.

 

I'm kinda new to this whole homeownership thing - could anyone explain to me how its possible that my assessment went UP this year?? And not just a little - its up over $20K. I don’t understand how that is possible.

Has anyone else seen similar with their assessments?