News/Info for Those Unhappy with Property Appraisals (Johnson City: sale, 2009)

[jabogitlu]

Washington County residents unhappy with recent property appraisals can begin scheduling appointments Monday to be heard by the County Equalization Board.

The county had an overall property value increase of about 30 percent from the last assessment in 2004. Assessment notices were sent out to residents on April 17. The increase caused a flood of calls and walk-ins to the property assessor’s office, many confused as to why their property value had gone up so much.

JohnsonCityPress.com - Local News - Johnson City, TN

[NorthernLights]

Has anyone heard what the new millage rate will be. My assessment went up 34%. I keep hearing that the millage rate will go down but have not seen what that rate will be.

[hhhome]

Were do the appraiser get there figures for the upgrades in homes is it from the builder of the house ?

[SarahSal]

The assessment on our mostly unoccupied downtown building went up almost 400%! Yes, 400% - it's crazy.. Thanks, Jab for posting this. We will definitely be calling to make an appointment!

[donsabi]

I have read several posts here a CD about the Tri-Cities area property values continuing to increase while most of the country was going to the other way. Now it's time to pay the piper. Over the past five years or so the Tri-Cities have seen an influx of people trying to escape the high taxes of their home states. This increase in population puts a lot of pressure on municipal services especially schools and the funds must come from somewhere and that means taxes.
The Triangle Area of NC, Raliegh, Durham, etc, is a good example of too rapid growth. Lots of people flocked there selling their higher priced homes in the north and driving up the local home prices in NC. Increased population means higher demands meaning higher taxes. Now those same people who overloaded the area are complaining about the higher costs.
I doubt NETN will ever see that kind of growth, but it will see higher assessments, higher taxes, and higher utility bills.

[Metalbender00]

I bought my house last year for 102k. i know its probably worth 90 or so now that the housing market crashed.. i got an appraisal for 127k, no way in hell i would sell for that..

[NorthernLights]

Our appraisal went from 78K five years ago to 104K this year. The last two condos sold in our neighborhood were: May 2009 - 107K, and August 2009 - 96K. The last sale was what they might call a "distressed sale" as they were young kids who...well never mind, they were married about fifteen minutes and....
I think we're probably about on par for the appraised value of these condos. The other condos sold in the previous year were all, on average 104K. I'm not happy about our assessments but they may be in line with the market value.
Fortunately the condos here meet the new FHA guidelines coming in October so we should have no issues with FHA loans in regard to the number of rented units, the number of units owned by one entity because we're mostly all individually owned not rented, and the fact that our HOA fees are almost 100% paid up to date, etc. and the rather large reserve of cash our HOA has invested and our fraud and deception bonds, etc. so forth, so we're probably sitting pretty in comparison to other condos in the Tri-City area, actually, I have heard many other condo developments have "zero" invested whereas we have over 30K set aside for emergency funds, we recently hired a property manager who has a good record of getting things done in other condo communities and especially compared to condos that are still mostly owned by the developer we more than meet the FHA guidelines. I think Cambridge Village will probably come out as a good investment in the long term. Condos can be tough investments some times but fortunately we've done the right things for the long term. Some other condos may have to really scuffle to meet the new FHA guidlelines though.