House assessment! (sales, real estate, rental)

[newhomeb]

Looks like it is that time of the year when everyone receives their home assessment value.
What's the use of these assessment values to home-owners?
And is everyone getting a higher value for their houses this year bcuz the housing market is rising again?

Thanks!

[spankys bbq]

The assessment is the value used to determine how much property tax you pay. They were redone a couple years ago and are in the process of being re-redone again. They only change once every so many years. I can't remember the exact number, but I think it is 7 years or something like that. A lot of times your assessed value will not be in line with an appraised value or a sale price. I've got a rental I manage for my family that was valued at $180,000 and it wouldn't fetch $55,000 in a sale.

[Charlotte84]

Yeap, same here...mine is about 40% over what it would sell for. How they do this? I have no idea, but I do know that Mecklenburg taxes SUCK! and I can't wait to move to Union county.

[walidm]

Property in NC must be re-assessed at least every 8 years by law under the Machinery ACT per North Carolina General Statutes. This includes all Real (real estate land and buildings) and personal property unless exempted.

The municipality you live in can do it earlier, or more often during an 8 year period, but it must be done every 8 years.

Your assessed value (tax value) should represent your market value at the time of assessment. This isn't always the case since the technique used to assess your value may not fall in line AND/OR you could have an assessed value still in place from the last assessment (say 4 years ago).

Assessed Value (tax value) is often less than market value...but not always, and when it isn't we typically hear folks petitioning the assessor to take another look.

Conventional wisdom is the lower the tax assessors market valuation the happier the taxpayer — the higher the sale of the home, the happier for the seller, the lower the sales price the happier the buyer...you get the idea.