property tax rate adjusted to your appraised value of your home....

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
there has been lots of talk around Denver about the county raising ther property tax to match your true appraised value of your home.

for example my home appraises at around 160K but my county list it as 105 and that is what i pay taxes on.


thankfully i dont live in the county of Denver so its not affecting me. but i can see many people getting taxed right out of their home if the greedy politicians have their way and push this through.


what are your thoughts on this? is it fair?
 

jdini76

Platinum Member
Mar 16, 2001
2,468
0
0
This happened to my parents who live in a county where property values increase dramatically whithin the last couple years. They had to hire a lawyer and fight it. I think it is still in litigation.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
yea same happened to my sister in Texas. there is some law stating that property taxes cant be raised more than 10% in one year. well hers jumped 22% and nobody at the county will return her calls to explain why. they had a county meeting about it and most of her neighbors showed up and the county still didn't explain why they were breaking the law.

i just dont get it. what has happened to our government at all levels to make them think they can do as they please? where along the lines did they forget that they got elected into office and work for the PEOPLE.
 

dmcowen674

No Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
54,889
47
91
www.alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: Citrix
but i can see many not rich people getting taxed right out of their home if the greedy politicians have their way and push this through.

what are your thoughts on this? is it fair?

Minor correction.

Good, they should get taxed right out of their homes.

Like everyone in here says, if you can't afford it you shouldn't have it.

 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
Originally posted by: dainthomas
So adjusting inaccurate appraised values is bad? :confused:

go get your latest appraisal from your county and tell me if the price they have listed is what you can actually list your house for. then tell me that say next year they adjust it say 60K higher than the year before and now you have a 6K property tax bill.

wouldn't that just piss you off a little?
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,601
166
111
www.slatebrookfarm.com
Ideally, everyone's appraised value would be what their house should sell for. That means, some people would pay a lot more in taxes, but other people (fairly) would pay less in taxes.
 

waggy

No Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
68,143
10
81
the county i live in keeps raising the amount of the house (its taxed on true or higher value). its to the point you actually have to fignt to get the value down. houses are not what they claim.
 

dainthomas

Lifer
Dec 7, 2004
14,738
3,652
136
Originally posted by: Citrix
Originally posted by: dainthomas
So adjusting inaccurate appraised values is bad? :confused:

go get your latest appraisal from your county and tell me if the price they have listed is what you can actually list your house for. then tell me that say next year they adjust it say 60K higher than the year before and now you have a 6K property tax bill.

wouldn't that just piss you off a little?

If the value they were using was higher than what I could sell it for, yes.

Otherwise I think I would be happy that I got away with paying less than I should have previously.
 

rivan

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2003
9,677
3
81
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Good, they should get taxed right out of their homes.



I don't mean to hijack the thread, but could someone please link the script that lets me not display specific user's posts? I've never seen a need until now.
 

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
Could be worse, her assessed value could be higher than the appraised value, like our house. The assessment was 40% more than the appraisal. I went down to the county clerk and appealed. I told him I'd sell it to him in a heartbeat and pocket the 45K if he was interested. Strangely he wasn't . . . :D

 

smack Down

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2005
4,507
0
0
Originally posted by: DrPizza
Ideally, everyone's appraised value would be what their house should sell for. That means, some people would pay a lot more in taxes, but other people (fairly) would pay less in taxes.

Agreed I don't see what difference it makes.

Total = sum of all properties in town value * tax rate.

The total should be fixed so as the value goes up the tax rate goes down. All it does is change how the tax burden is distributed and not the total tax burden.
 

meltdown75

Lifer
Nov 17, 2004
37,548
7
81
Market value assessment is the fairest system out there...

Greedy politicians? Property taxes go towards whatever is being done in the municipality... ie. roads, special projects, infrastructure. Perhaps they are greedy in the sense that they want to provide better services for their ratepayers.
 

smack Down

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2005
4,507
0
0
Originally posted by: XMan
Could be worse, her assessed value could be higher than the appraised value, like our house. The assessment was 40% more than the appraisal. I went down to the county clerk and appealed. I told him I'd sell it to him in a heartbeat and pocket the 45K if he was interested. Strangely he wasn't . . . :D

My favorite was a person in my town had a peace of land and purchased a mobile home. The assessment went up about 150% the price of the mobile home.
 

XMan

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,513
49
91
Originally posted by: smack Down
Originally posted by: XMan
Could be worse, her assessed value could be higher than the appraised value, like our house. The assessment was 40% more than the appraisal. I went down to the county clerk and appealed. I told him I'd sell it to him in a heartbeat and pocket the 45K if he was interested. Strangely he wasn't . . . :D

My favorite was a person in my town had a peace of land and purchased a mobile home. The assessment went up about 150% the price of the mobile home.

Well, sure, he made "improvements." ;)

In defense of the assessors our house would be worth a lot more if it had been taken care of. But it was pretty well neglected for 10 years or so; the appraised value will probably come quite close to the assessed value after we get done fixing it up.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
Originally posted by: Citrix
there has been lots of talk around Denver about the county raising ther property tax to match your true appraised value of your home.

for example my home appraises at around 160K but my county list it as 105 and that is what i pay taxes on.


thankfully i dont live in the county of Denver so its not affecting me. but i can see many people getting taxed right out of their home if the greedy politicians have their way and push this through.


what are your thoughts on this? is it fair?

It's interesting that people usually complain about taxes instead of government spending. It's the excessive spending that forces them to raise your taxes. Complain about that.

The thing is, people want all of the benefits of big government spending (nice roads, good schools, good police coverage), they just don't want to pay for it.

Is it fair? Well, if they spend $X a year they have to bring in $X a year. If their choices are to either raise the tax rate by whatever percentage is necessary to bring in $X or to change the assessed values of homes to more accurately reflect the value of the home, then I think the latter is more fair. Your houses is assessed at ~2/3 of its appraised value - what if on average houses in your county are assessed at only 60% of their appraised value? Then you'd be paying more than your fair share of taxes. I bet you don't think that's fair.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
65,242
13,511
146
Thank god for Kahleeforneeya's Prop 13. The tax on your home can only go up a MAX of 2% per year, and the value of the home stays the same as when you purchased the home, except for improvements that actually raise the value. We added a huge patio to the house, and got building permits for the construction. Even though it only cost us a bit over $2K to build it, our property value increased by $4K. My neighbors who live in essentially the same home, but bought during the recent boom in housing cost, pay 2-3X as much in property taxes as I do...because they paid 2-3X as much for the house as I did.
 

LikeLinus

Lifer
Jul 25, 2001
11,518
670
126
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: Citrix
but i can see many not rich people getting taxed right out of their home if the greedy politicians have their way and push this through.

what are your thoughts on this? is it fair?

Minor correction.

Good, they should get taxed right out of their homes.

Like everyone in here says, if you can't afford it you shouldn't have it.

So if you purchased a house 15 years earlier for say $200,000 and then the market booms and your house is now worth 600,000 = this is someone not being able to afford their home and deserve to lose it?

You've got a pretty crappy outlook on life if that's true.
 

meltdown75

Lifer
Nov 17, 2004
37,548
7
81
a little snippet of what is happening elsewhere...

Up here in Ontario, people complained and complained for years about the property tax system. More specifically they complained about MPAC which is the corporation that handles the assessment function for the municipalities. Almost no one doing the complaining knew that MPAC is governed by legislation, ie. the Assessment Act, which handcuffs the corporation to the market value system. People out there actually thought that MPAC was making more money through inaccurate (read: high) assessments. Such is certainly not the case.

As a result of the complaints, the assessment rolls were frozen until 2009 when there will be a province-wide reassessment. A lot of the information being used was collected through door-to-door reinspections of thousands of properties. So basically the public is getting screwed over because they whined too much. If they would have just educated themselves a little bit more and complained to the right people, they would have never seen the assessor this year and wouldn't get dinged for that addition and finished basement that was picked up during the reinspection :p

The biggest thing that people fail to realize is that it is not an exact science... mass appraisal of millions of properties is by its nature subject to errors and the data is hard to keep up-to-date with limited staffing levels and a set budget. Without the help of the public coming forward with new information, some errors would never be corrected. So in the end it is very important to give your local assessment body a call if things don't look right.
 

meltdown75

Lifer
Nov 17, 2004
37,548
7
81
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Thank god for Kahleeforneeya's Prop 13. The tax on your home can only go up a MAX of 2% per year, and the value of the home stays the same as when you purchased the home, except for improvements that actually raise the value. We added a huge patio to the house, and got building permits for the construction. Even though it only cost us a bit over $2K to build it, our property value increased by $4K. My neighbors who live in essentially the same home, but bought during the recent boom in housing cost, pay 2-3X as much in property taxes as I do...because they paid 2-3X as much for the house as I did.
The capping on % increases is a great idea. However, matching the assessment to the sale is tricky. You'd certainly need assessors investigating the sales to ensure that they are arm's length transactions and true indicators of market value...
 

Delta6Echo

Senior member
Jun 1, 2007
837
0
0
Originally posted by: Citrix
there has been lots of talk around Denver about the county raising ther property tax to match your true appraised value of your home.

for example my home appraises at around 160K but my county list it as 105 and that is what i pay taxes on.


thankfully i dont live in the county of Denver so its not affecting me. but i can see many people getting taxed right out of their home if the greedy politicians have their way and push this through.


what are your thoughts on this? is it fair?

My house in OC has increased in value since I purchased it about 1.5 years ago and they recently increased my taxes on the "new" value that they came up with.

Is this legal in CA? Unbelievable.
 

Delta6Echo

Senior member
Jun 1, 2007
837
0
0
Originally posted by: meltdown75
a little snippet of what is happening elsewhere...

Up here in Ontario, people complained and complained for years about the property tax system. More specifically they complained about MPAC which is the corporation that handles the assessment function for the municipalities. Almost no one doing the complaining knew that MPAC is governed by legislation, ie. the Assessment Act, which handcuffs the corporation to the market value system. People out there actually thought that MPAC was making more money through inaccurate (read: high) assessments. Such is certainly not the case.

As a result of the complaints, the assessment rolls were frozen until 2009 when there will be a province-wide reassessment. A lot of the information being used was collected through door-to-door reinspections of thousands of properties. So basically the public is getting screwed over because they whined too much. If they would have just educated themselves a little bit more and complained to the right people, they would have never seen the assessor this year and wouldn't get dinged for that addition and finished basement that was picked up during the reinspection :p

The biggest thing that people fail to realize is that it is not an exact science... mass appraisal of millions of properties is by its nature subject to errors and the data is hard to keep up-to-date with limited staffing levels and a set budget. Without the help of the public coming forward with new information, some errors would never be corrected. So in the end it is very important to give your local assessment body a call if things don't look right.

Exactly. I want to see how they came up with the "value" of my house considering the current housing market.

I remember calling the city and asking to speak to a property tax appraiser about my taxes. They couldn't even explain how they came up with the values, which leads me to believe that they are lying.
 

Dirigible

Diamond Member
Apr 26, 2006
5,961
32
91
Originally posted by: BoomerD
Thank god for Kahleeforneeya's Prop 13. The tax on your home can only go up a MAX of 2% per year, and the value of the home stays the same as when you purchased the home, except for improvements that actually raise the value. We added a huge patio to the house, and got building permits for the construction. Even though it only cost us a bit over $2K to build it, our property value increased by $4K. My neighbors who live in essentially the same home, but bought during the recent boom in housing cost, pay 2-3X as much in property taxes as I do...because they paid 2-3X as much for the house as I did.

OP: Yup, it was things like you describe that caused Californians to pass Prop 13.

While there is some unfairness in the system, and not all the fallout is positive, it mostly prevents people from being taxed out of their homes, and prevents huge jumps in tax bills.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
Originally posted by: LikeLinus
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: Citrix
but i can see many not rich people getting taxed right out of their home if the greedy politicians have their way and push this through.

what are your thoughts on this? is it fair?

Minor correction.

Good, they should get taxed right out of their homes.

Like everyone in here says, if you can't afford it you shouldn't have it.

So if you purchased a house 15 years earlier for say $200,000 and then the market booms and your house is now worth 600,000 = this is someone not being able to afford their home and deserve to lose it?

You've got a pretty crappy outlook on life if that's true.

6 years you've been here, and you can't tell when dmccowen is trolling? It's pretty easy to tell - if he's posting, he's trolling.
 

smack Down

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2005
4,507
0
0
Originally posted by: LikeLinus
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: Citrix
but i can see many not rich people getting taxed right out of their home if the greedy politicians have their way and push this through.

what are your thoughts on this? is it fair?

Minor correction.

Good, they should get taxed right out of their homes.

Like everyone in here says, if you can't afford it you shouldn't have it.

So if you purchased a house 15 years earlier for say $200,000 and then the market booms and your house is now worth 600,000 = this is someone not being able to afford their home and deserve to lose it?

You've got a pretty crappy outlook on life if that's true.

If the value of their house triples then the tax rate would be cut by two thirds. Oh wait I bet they voted for every spending increase they could because their taxes can only go up 2% a year.