Anyone successfully contested their property tax valuation? (real estate, condo)
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We purchased our home in 2008 for $259K and our taxes have risen from $6800 to $6900 during that time. The kicker is that though we got our little card in the mail that the county sends saying that our home is still valued at $221K, a variety of the internet home value sites pegs the value between $216K and $218K. If I want to contest this do I just pay to have an appraisal done by a private firm and send the report to the county? Do I need to deal with my municipality as well? I live in Hunterdon. I don't expect my taxes to be cut in half or anything, but every little bit helps. I suppose one has to factor the cost of the appraisal in to see if its worth doing though.
you typically have a realtor get you 5 comps, and bring that information to the appeal. did your town's tax rate change, or did your house assessment change? you seem to be saying the assessment hasn't changed - so appealing means you believe your house should be assessed at less than what you bought it at in 2008, which is entirely possible.
We purchased our home in 2008 for $259K and our taxes have risen from $6800 to $6900 during that time. The kicker is that though we got our little card in the mail that the county sends saying that our home is still valued at $221K, a variety of the internet home value sites pegs the value between $216K and $218K. If I want to contest this do I just pay to have an appraisal done by a private firm and send the report to the county? Do I need to deal with my municipality as well? I live in Hunterdon. I don't expect my taxes to be cut in half or anything, but every little bit helps. I suppose one has to factor the cost of the appraisal in to see if its worth doing though.
Based on what you wrote you have no case. The assessment has to be 15% overvalued for them to legally have to do anything...otherwise it is within the margin of error. Your assessment is only 5k or so away from what you are saying it's worth now. Your taxes only went up $100 since 2008? I would be happy with that.
Last edited by Obrero; 01-11-2012 at 01:43 PM..
Reason: typo
Based on what you wrote you have no case. The assessment has to be 15% overvalued for them to legally have to do anything...otherwise it is within the margin of error. Your assessment is only 5k or so away from what you are saying it's worth now. Your taxes only went up $100 since 2008? I would be happy with that.
Here's what I don't understand-we paid $259K for the house in June 2008 (we financed $246,000 of that. Obviously it was appraised at the time of sale, and the appraiser's report stated that it indeed was worth at least $246K otherwise we would not have gotten the mortgage. Then after about three months we got the card in the mail with the value of $221K. This being our first home it threw us for a loop and I talked to our real estate agent about it, she said "Oh don't worry-tax assessed value is always A LOT lower than appraised value." I get what she means because if the house was indeed assessed at $246K at my town's tax rate the property taxes would be even worse Furthermore, if that logic holds, now that my home is worth between $216-218K, shouldn't the assessed value have dropped precipitously as well?
The assessed value for property taxes is not the same as the appraised value or purchase price. If the town is not assessed at 100% the assessment value is going to be lower. You need to find out what your towns ratio is. For example if your town ratio is 50% the assessor is saying your house is worth $442,000 and you have a case for appeal.
I did it, but mine was easy. I'm in a condo and so could come up with exact comps. Didn't need a real estate person or a lawyer and I filed on line through the Monmouth County website.
Saved me about $600 a year--not a huge killing, but it's still $600 that I don't have to pay.
The assessed value for property taxes is not the same as the appraised value or purchase price. If the town is not assessed at 100% the assessment value is going to be lower. You need to find out what your towns ratio is. For example if your town ratio is 50% the assessor is saying your house is worth $442,000 and you have a case for appeal.
If he is in Hunterdon county I think it is at 100%....but I could have remembered that wrong.
you can't look at your town assessment and correlate it much to market value. i know it defies logic - but you can't tie these two things together.
in my town it's very close (98.75) but generally the answer is no. you need that "factor" which tells you what to multiple your assessed number to, to get market value. you then go from there. badfish, your tax assessor has this number and it's probably on the website.
so for instance, if my assessed value is 500K, I multiply it by .9875 to get my market value, $493,750. If I can show comps lower by at least 10-15%, I have a case. otherwise, fugeddaboutit.
ironically, if i were to try to appeal, the best comp i could use sold for EXACTLY what my "market value" is. Bastards! LOL
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