Nassau County - buying a house at a higher price than county's assessment (Westbury: sale) - City-Data Forum

wcutiew · 06-13-2012, 08:31 PM

Would a higher price than what the county assessed the house at increase the property tax?

I called the county, the woman who answered, said NO, a sale at a higher price does not increase the property tax. But, that's not what a few realtors told me. Plus, I read somewhere that a house is reassessed at time of purchase - so if it's purchased at a higher price, at time of reassessment, value of house will be increased and therefore the property tax will increase.

Someone who knows exactly how this works, please do fill me in.

I already know that buying LOWER than assessed value will mean grieving taxes will be easier - but I am confused at what happens if a purchase price is higher.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!

nuts2uiam · 06-14-2012, 06:16 AM

I am not an expert but I do not believe your taxes will increase based upon the sale price. I am guessing that with the banks doing their due diligence in lending and therefore the appraisals are now based upon an actual visit as opposed to just using comps, it might be considered by the county as one of the parameters in a valuation. It might make it a bit harder to justify a lowering of the taxes if you grieve them as you were willing to buy it for x dollars, but I seriously doubt it will automatically increase your taxes. As I said that is merely a guess and I have no idea of the factors that created a lower valuation for your particular home.

twingles · 06-14-2012, 07:39 AM

I believe your house is re-assessed at the time of purchase and I'm sure the price is part of the deal. After all, if you pay $600K and it's assessed at $500K, how are you going to argue the assessment is wrong??? As pp noted the appraisal also has to fall in line with your purchase price so that will be another defense that they have.

ETA: I sold my house 2 years ago for about $200K more than assessed value and I just checked and it doesn't look like the taxes have gone up. So who knows. It also doesn't look like the assessed value has gone up, so maybe they aren't getting to it anymore.

Zytos · 06-14-2012, 07:42 AM

My taxes went up a year after I bought a house at around $100k more than the assessed price.

I actually tried grieving the taxes before the deadline in March, back to the original assessed value. I don't see why Nassau County would agree that my assessed value should be $100k lower than what I just paid for it, but we'll see what happens.

wcutiew · 06-14-2012, 12:03 PM

Thank you for your responses. See that's the problem. Everyone says a different thing. I don't know who is right.

The house I'm interested in - in Old Westbury - it's county assessment is at $1.1m, while the asking price is $1.8m and I can prob get it for $1.5. It sits on a 1 acre, has a pool and is a nice size house. Location is very nice, not facing, backing or near any major road. Taxes are already in their early 30s...So I am wondering if I purchase the house 400k higher than assessed value, will the taxes substantially go up? I don't mind 30k taxes (have lots of kids that would benefit from great school district), but afraid that if I purchase the house at $1.5, the taxes will go up to 40k+. If that's the case - I don't want to buy the house.

How can I obtain actual info what happens in this type of scenario?

Thanks!!!

bellakin123 · 06-14-2012, 12:51 PM

It was my understanding that the purchase price has nothing to do with the assessed value. The assessed value is determined by market value throughout the area. Anyone can ask for whatever price they want-doesn't mean they'll get it. If I choose to pay the asking price then that doesn't change what the property is actually worth. If purchase price determined the taxes then mine should have gone down because I paid around $60k less than the asking price. The sellers were a little over zealous in their asking price lol

twingles · 06-14-2012, 01:38 PM

Your taxes will be $40K before you know it anyway. It is Nassau County, after all.

Pruzhany · 06-14-2012, 04:42 PM

What happens sometimes in that area (primarily North of it) people purchase the homes and dozer them. But when a home sells for too much above assessment they may send out someone to re-assess to see if there was something that was missed. I would probably look to see how long its been on the market and also look at its assessment history for the past three years. But assessment is not based on what it sells for.

Elke Mariotti · 06-14-2012, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wcutiew

Thank you for your responses. See that's the problem. Everyone says a different thing. I don't know who is right.

The house I'm interested in - in Old Westbury - it's county assessment is at $1.1m, while the asking price is $1.8m and I can prob get it for $1.5. It sits on a 1 acre, has a pool and is a nice size house. Location is very nice, not facing, backing or near any major road. Taxes are already in their early 30s...So I am wondering if I purchase the house 400k higher than assessed value, will the taxes substantially go up? I don't mind 30k taxes (have lots of kids that would benefit from great school district), but afraid that if I purchase the house at $1.5, the taxes will go up to 40k+. If that's the case - I don't want to buy the house.

How can I obtain actual info what happens in this type of scenario?

Thanks!!!

Call the Nassau County Assessor's office at 516-571-1500 and ask a general question: Does a house get re-assessed every time it gets sold? Chances are, they will say no, but you should get the answer from "the horse's mouth" - sound like a good idea?

BTW, if the house is in the Village of Old Westbury, you might want to verify the accuracy of the Village taxes and call the Village at (516) 626-0800

Your RE agent should be able to provide you with this information