Property Taxes

What happened is we had a bunch of realestate investors come in and buy some raw land at 4 times what land was selling for in 2005 and 2006. No new homes have been built on the higher priced land or on the lower priced land fot that matter.

We have 15000 track homes being built with-in 15miles so apparently the investors figure our land value has to raise to become equal. Our homes are on 3a lots and the track homes are on 1/4a lots. Average track home cost about $130k or was. It may be in the $150k price area now.

Several, maybe 10-3a lots, sold for $100k to $150k, up from $26k the year before. 88 total lots in this section. Out of the total 88lots theres 30 existing homes. There was no sales of lots with existing homes.

There's other near by sections that also have 3a lots with the same results but only about 15 existing homes per section.

So my question, has anyone fought the county accessment values and won? How?

I can already tell I'm gonna hate paying the new property tax amount.

T_Bone

Governor Granholm just rejected a bill that would tax farm land as agriculture, not development. I believe Michigan is the only state that does not differentiate between ag and development. Just taxes all land at development value. The bill would have locked ag land at $5 to $7 an acre.

I am in Clayton Township west of Flint. They bill themselves as rural, sure wouldn't know it by the tax bill they send me!!!

Rick

In my area, it's the school system that kicks my butt on every tax statement. Each public high school has to have an indoor swimming pool, theater, etc. Anyone that publicly comes out against the latest Taj Mahal they're proposing to build instantly gets labelled as a child hater.

• I think it is worth while to take a look anyway

We did get taxes lowered on our vacant land from $1200 per year to less than $50. They had it classified as "vacant". We put some fertilizer out, had it hayed and requested a reclassification to "ag".

On another note, our state Rep had a letter published in our paper a few weeks ago about a new tax proposal he was introducing to help seniors. The meat of it was, anyone over 65 and earning less than $30k can have their property taxes frozen. The state would finance the increases at a rate of 5% per year, then upon the death of the individual, the taxes could be paid from the estate. After reading this, I realized our elected leaders have indeed lost their mind and there is no hope... ; -)

Thease slick willey's we have here put a stop to that years ago as to be classified ag here it has to be more than a 20a plot.

T_Bone

Here, state law says assessment must be fair market value. And they go a ways to define just what that is. The county supervisors decide the rate. Average assessment increase for the past 2 years here was 30%. I could wish mine was so little.

One small parcel went up 77%, another 68%, and the 38 acres that has our house and a half (2 building sites/all that are possible) is up 88%, to $414,700 (land only). The frightening part is the new assessments are probably right. The assessor is simply doing his job, leaving it up to the politicians to set the rate.

The county supervisors are currently slugging it out on the rate. Likely we"ll get a small drop, meaning my taxes will probably go up a little less than 50%. The minority supervisors would like to drop the rate so there was no tax increase. If the voters spoke loudly enough, that"s what would happen. Ain"t gonna happen.

But to answer your question, every time I"ve challenged assessments I"ve been successful. When I first built our unusual house I couldn"t wait to see how they"d assess it.

I read the rules, all of them. When I got the assessment I called to ask how they figured it. By breaking the rules! Until I pointed it out. All of a sudden I got a new assessment well under half of what they started with. 10 years later we finally got up to where they started.

That was my first time protesting assessment. I"ve been back twice more. Both land and improvement assessments.

You have to know the rules and be ready to show how the assessor is in error. If you do your homework, my experience is that you can easily win. More often here, the homeowner discovers that the assessor was correct.

A 2300 acre farm nearby recently sold. They"re going to create only 100 house sites, very expensive house sites. Then our assessment will take another big leap.

I"m the only one I know in my district who doesn"t think much our our supervisor. She loves getting more taxes to spend. Certainly won"t be in favor of dropping the rate.

Pay or leave.

Ya but the difference is your wanting your area to go high dollar as then you can get a better return for your labor.

All that lives here in this area are simple working stiffs trying to stay afloat. It's stricky the realestate investors driving our market into higher values for there profits.

I bet we don't see one home sale in the next 5yrs at the current perposed land price.

T_Bone

Only if you sell are high prices remotely attractive. Other than that, it's only higher taxes. I start selling land and my quality of life goes down. Where would I go to pick morels or shoot a turkey?

In fact, without farm use taxation, that extra $5000 tax bill every year would have me packing. We didn't buy here with a profit motive, just looking for a great place to live. Found it, if we can afford the taxes.

Far as my business goes, my experience is wealthy don't make good customers. They're accustomed to the money flowing one direction, to them. I'll take somebody who has to think about affordability over the wealthy any day. They also give great referrals, the wealthy, never.

Got a new neighbor, paid $1.2m for 3500 sq ft house (that needed work) and 18 ac. On the market for quite awhile before an out-of-town buyer decided it was a good deal. Did not affect my assessment.

A couple of buyers, particularly speculators, do not make a market. Virginia law specifically says that market value is what the average buyer would pay. That's the joe who would live next door, not a speculator. Comparables of past sales are the proof. If your assessor doesn't assess that way, unless Arizona law differs, you've got an excellent reason to challenge.

Get on with it. But do your homework first. Grousing won't accomplish anything.

You probably should write to all of the state politicians and urge them to force the tax assessors to roll back valuations.

We got our notice yesterday. Valuation went up $1,100 for 2007 and up $1,565 for 2008.

Ya I'm going to spend a few hours looking up my neighbors assessment rates to see if we getting the fair shake or the shaft.

T_Bone

It must be a AZ State thing as that option was also printed on the bottom of our assessment statement. I'm sure tha kids would like a $20k tax bill when we kick the bucket. LOL

T_Bone