16 Responses to “real estate assessments 2008”

1. posted by stephen at January 26, 2008 8:14 am :
   

   My house jumped $16,400 this year from last to $74,000. That’s an increase of 28.5%! That’s more than the last few years combined. It’s also $3,000 less than what we actually paid for it. The only things my wife and I did since we bought it in February were put in a fence along the alley, add a shed and plant a small garden.

   Also, the surrounding neighbors, who’s houses are similiarly designed, (one of which already had a completed fence and a shed, only went up between $1,400 and $2,300 dollars and are assessed closer to $60,000.

   I’d be cool with it if the market was still hot and people were flooding into the area, but the market’s gone cold and I live way out on S St. near Oakwood where not much is happening.

   Anybody have any thoughts?

2. posted by Anne at January 26, 2008 10:54 am :
   

   Yeah, mine went up seventy-five percent — and I have a two year old so I haven’t done ANYTHING to it this year. I can’t wait to see what they did with the one next door, with the squatters and the illegal community landfill in the backyard….(checks)

   Right on….$45,000 more than mine! It must be that awesome vinyl siding the wannabe flipper smacked up before he abandoned it half done. I’d love to be an insider on some of these assessments. How do they figure?

3. posted by tim at January 26, 2008 11:59 am :
   

   Ours has remained steady for the last two years. It was a couple thousand less the year before we moved in, so it’s been at essentially the same value for the last three years now.

4. posted by lynne at January 26, 2008 12:35 pm :
   

   Is there some trick to using this search on Macs? I’ve tried with Safari and Firefox and got nothing.

   We just had a precomp done yesterday, and it came up about $20k less than our purchase price listed in our rent-to-own agreement in Aug. 2006. :(

5. posted by john_m at January 26, 2008 1:28 pm :
   

   I’m on a Mac & have had no problems. The user interface of the site is awkward, to be kind.

6. posted by Daniel at January 26, 2008 2:22 pm :
   

   Ours has stayed the exact same as last year. In fact, our building value has stayed the same the last two years(land value went up a little last year).

7. posted by BK at January 26, 2008 7:15 pm :
   

   We bought in Feb of last year with an assessment of 175. This year it went down to 163, which is exactly what we paid (land stayed the same, improvement decreased). On the advice of the attorney that handled our closing, we didn’t let the assessor into the house, but we did a ton of work on the outside…so who knows how they figure these things.

8. posted by john_m at January 26, 2008 7:46 pm :
   

   The assessment value should ideally reflect the actual market value. When you bought your house, you pegged the current market value.

9. posted by Jackie at January 27, 2008 10:12 am :
   

   We bought our house in 2005 from Better Housing Coalition. It was new then. Last year, the city assessed our house at $100,000 more than the price we paid in 2005. To say the least, I thought someone had made a typo. They hadn’t. We filed an appeal and they dropped our assessment back to something I considered reasonable. If you have an issue with your assessed value, there is a way to appeal on the City of Richmond website under assessor’s office.

10. posted by Celeste at January 27, 2008 4:11 pm :
    

    Jackie, the city has publicly admitted in the past that just about everyone who appeals wins at least something - glad you agreed with what they brought it down to. Everyone should be aware that they can appeal, and if you don’t agree with what they come back with on the second assessment you can also appeal that amount to Circuit Court (not something the city advertises much, since it inconveniences them to have that happen).

    Richmond’s not the only city with assessment problems this year. I’ve been reading about a lot of other places with the same problem - people bought during the bubble and are now finding out that their houses are not worth what they thought, but the city’s trying to balance the budget based on incorrect assesessments.

    John’s comment is quite true - the assessment ideally is supposed to reflect market value. Unfortunately, figuring out market value in this housing market it tough. A friend told me recently she heard there was a bill in the General Assembly to enable homeowners to hire a private appraiser to try to get a correct assessment, but I don’t know what happened to that bill. If anyone knows, it might be worth posting news of it here.

    One other thing - there’s strength in numbers; in the past several years, other neighborhoods in Richmond have banded together to appeal assessments through their civic associations.

11. posted by stephen at January 27, 2008 6:19 pm :
    

    Well, what I was told by a mortgage consultant when I bought my house is that although assessments somewhat reflects a house’s market value, they tend to average about 25% below what a private appraiser would evaluate them at.

    My assessment went from way below actual market value to right next to the market value, and I’m trying to figure out why. Especially since none of the houses around me jumped like that, even though they’re in better condition that mine (newer windows, central heating/air).

    That makes me wonder if an assessor even came to look at my house and my neighbors’. Or did they just see in the city documents that someone bought it and upped the assessment to near what I paid for it? That’s my guess, because the only other house with a higher assessment is another one that had been bought in the last couple of years, and that one was and continues to be in the worse condition of all the houses in our little row - and has the smallest lot too!

12. posted by Celeste at January 27, 2008 7:30 pm :
    

    Stephen, I believe your mortgage consultant told you wrong. The city is required by state law to assess at 100% of market value.

    The city most likely did not come and look, they don’t drive around looking much, unless you file an appeal, that’s when they’ll come and look. Your assessment went up because of what you paid for the house, simple as that.

    You might have a chance with an appeal, but the assessor might ask why you paid more than the assessed (supposedly market) value when you bought it. However it costs nothing to appeal so you have nothing to lose by trying it. You can even lay out your case by pointing out not only the condition of your house but the comps are obvious if they’re all around you and assessed for less.

13. posted by Celeste at January 27, 2008 7:41 pm :
    

    Stephen, all over the country there are people who want to know why their houses aren’t worth what they thought they were. There are entire subdivisions where people were told the house was worth half a million, the appraiser (private) told them it was, the banker said so, they took out a mortgage, the appraiser got paid and the mortgage broker and/or bank got a loan - and now they don’t have the equity they thought they had, the house turns out to be worth less (sometimes hundreds of thousands less). In a lot of cases, the appraisers were over appraising. I heard something recently where something like 60% of the appraisers working for a particular bank admitted that they were doing that so the bank could close the deal.

    “My assessment went from way below actual market value to right next to the market value, and I’m trying to figure out why.” Unfortunately, it may be that the market value for your house is closer to that $60,000 you said your neighbors are assessed at right now. The market was really hot up here this last five years or so, and that’s reflected in the higher assessments - plus, you paid more so they’re assessing it for more.

14. posted by william at January 27, 2008 9:15 pm :
    

    There are two avenues of rationale that the City uses as merit for appeal. The first would be that your assessment is based on a value above fair market value (100% of fair market value). The second is equity in the neighborhood. If you believe (and can support it with comps), that your property is being assessed at a higher value than other similar properties in the immediate area, you may have basis for appeal. The first method is risky, at best. MOST, not all, of the properties in Church Hill are assessed below market value. You may find that if you appeal, (and the assessor and the Board of Review will make an exterior and interior inspection of your property) you could potentially have the property assessed higher than what it is currently. Your appeal may just get you a higher tax bill! This very scenario has occurred on Broad Street. However, if you appeal based on an equity issue, you may have a greater chance of having your assessment lowered. You will have to document that other similar properties in the immediate area (on your block) are assessed at a lower $/ square foot rate than yours. Be prepared to attend a BOR appeals hearing armed with your homework and then have a visit from the assessors office and the BOR at your home. I’ve been successful on a number of occasions with the second scenario. If you are upset because your assessment is starting to closely align with what you paid for the property (recently), then, your assessment is pretty much right on! You established what fair market value was for that property when you purchased it for that price. The assessment is supposed to fairly closely match fair market value.

15. posted by william at January 27, 2008 9:27 pm :
    

    Celeste…you are correct that the City is required to assess at 100% of fair market value. In reality that doesn’t happen. If it did, there would be countless properties in the Hill that would see their assessment jump by 100%. Their is the hard reality that people would not be able to manage that much of a rapid increase at once. The assessor has stated that the folks who were responsible for this area for years have not kept up on accurate property assessments. Since the guard has changed in the assessor’s office, there has been more focus on canvassing this area to reassess. You will notice that properties that have sold in the past few years are closely aligned with fair market value. However, the properties that have had the same owner for 5 or more years are dramatically under assessment. That is the City’s tactic for getting them in line. Once the property sells, the assessment is moved to closely reflect fair market value. If you’ve been in your home for a number of years, be careful what you ask for through appeal.

16. posted by Dave at January 28, 2008 8:27 am :
    

    My assessment went up 12%. The building value went up 23% and the land value went down 11%. This makes NO sense. I live on the 3300 block of E. Marshall where NOTHING has happened to any of the houses, mine included. 2 of the 5 structures on this block are boarded up. I could see the land decreasing for that but not my house increasing for the first time in 4 years, when nothing has been done????

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