Tax Assessments on Property (Phoenix: lease, condo, assessors)

[thao1571]

Hi All,

My boyfriend and I just moved to Phoenix last month and can see ourselves here for a while. We're thinking of buying a condo sometime in the future, maybe in 6 - 12 months.

Something that I've noticed is that prices are very low as compared to other cities I've lived in, however, there are annual tax assessments of approximately 20K per year on properties that cost about 100K to purchase.

Obviously, I can ask a realtor about these assessments, I'm just reluctant to contact one since I know I'm not looking to buy for a while and don't want to waste their time.

Does anyone have experience with this? Is this common? Obviously adding about 2K per month on top of the mortgage, common fees and regular taxes definitely changes things for us in determining whether or not we will buy or continue to rent when our lease ends.

I have mostly been looking in recent condo conversions, however, even looking at older, more established condo buildings, these tax assessments seem to exist.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Ponderosa]

I can't imagine what you are talking about. Taxes here are usually around 1% of the value of the property per year. So a 100k condo would cost maybe 1000 per year in property tax. Maybe you mean assessed value, the adjusted amount the tax is based on?

[SpeedyAZ]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

I can't imagine what you are talking about. Taxes here are usually around 1% of the value of the property per year. So a 100k condo would cost maybe 1000 per year in property tax. Maybe you mean assessed value, the adjusted amount the tax is based on?

I wonder if she is talking about an assessment ratio? My tax assessment ratio is 10% of the FCV/LPV.

But I agree, taxes on my house are 0.9% of the assessed value. I don't know where the OP is getting her numbers from.

[thao1571]

Hi All,

I might be misunderstanding what these zillow pages are saying, from what it sounds like. I'm looking at properties such as these:

208 W Portland St UNIT 263, Phoenix, AZ 85003 MLS# 358237 - Zillow

387 N 2nd Ave UNIT 2H, Phoenix, AZ 85003 - Zillow

When you scroll down to the bottom of the page under Tax History, there are large "Tax Assessments" listed for each previous year.

[SpeedyAZ]

Originally Posted by thao1571

Hi All,

I might be misunderstanding what these zillow pages are saying, from what it sounds like. I'm looking at properties such as these:

208 W Portland St UNIT 263, Phoenix, AZ 85003 MLS# 358237 - Zillow

387 N 2nd Ave UNIT 2H, Phoenix, AZ 85003 - Zillow

When you scroll down to the bottom of the page under Tax History, there are large "Tax Assessments" listed for each previous year.

The tax assessments aren't what you'll be paying, you're paying the property taxes. Tax assessments are usually calculated by a formula which takes 80% or 90% of your FMV. You pay taxes on assessed value.

Property taxes for what you're looking at will be between $2000-$3000/ year.

[AZgarden]

It looks like the tax is $3234 a year, from the Assessors webpage. Pretty high for a condo but it looks really nice.

[thao1571]

Ah, I understand now. Thanks for the clarification, I was freaking out a bit!