Prince William County 2010 real property assessments now available

[ChristineVA]

I'm in 22193, which is Dale City; however I live off Cardinal and we had very little foreclosure action over that way. Most sales have been actual sales even though there has been very little movement.

[ChristineVA]

Hmmm...just looked at my parent's home in 22192. There assessment went down quite a bit. Their neighborhood is a huge townhouse development so that could be the difference.

[Workin_Hard]

Mine dropped by $3,000. I wish I had paid only what the assessment says it's "worth". But we're not selling anytime soon (as far as we can tell right now) and are in it for the long haul. I still owe a lot less than the assessment though.

[tgbwc]

We moved from PW in April. Had to look at our old house out of curiosity and the total assessment went up $3,500 from $289,100 to $292,600. Zip 20112

[ngadude]

My house in Gainesville (20155) dropped 4.77% in value. This is a new house built (completed) in October 2008. Doesn't worry me though that it is assessed much less than I paid - I don't plan on selling anytime soon. I just moved in last November, and hope to stay in this house for many years. I stayed in my last house (my townhouse which was my first house) for 25 years, and I hope to stay in there as long (assuming I live that long...)!

[ngadude]

Originally Posted by HEATHER72

Our assessed value went down 6.65%, which is of course less than what we paid. At least the amount of taxes we pay has gone down since 2006. I don't fret over the assessed value since I don't plan on selling any time soon.

For the record, the houses like mine in my neighborhood have been selling for about $60K over the assessed value. The exact same houses in another neighborhood about 3 miles away are selling for around the assessed value... weird.

I agree, I've been watching sales of comparable houses to mine in the neighborhood just out of curiosity - nothing more. I use www.franklymls.com - you can subscribe to all listings/sales in your neighborhood - it is fun to see what your neighbor's houses are selling for (if you like being nosy). There haven't been any sales near me since all the houses in this little section have been built in the last year and a half. But for the rest of the neighborhood, I've noticed about the same thing - for my model I've seen used ones selling for $40K - $50K above last year's assessment for that exact address the sale occurred! Assessments for our neighborhood (me and Heather live in the same neighborhood but have different model houses) - seem very very low. However, not complaining - it keeps the tax bill lower!

Of course, they may raise our tax rate more than the 4.77% my assessment dropped this year. I can forsee my taxes going up, but maybe not. It will be interesting to see what happens with the tax rate.

I'm still waiting for Manassas City to come out with their assessments so I can see what happened to the assessment on my former townhouse there. That should be interesting.

Interesting, Heather72, regarding sales in the older neighborhood 3 miles south of us. That is really weird as you say! That neighborhood's houses are identical models to the ones in our neighborhood (well, some of the models are - including my model). It is just the neighborhood the builder built before this neighborhood, which is still being built. I guess one theory would be, the used houses always sell for less than the new houses. But, since this neighborhood is still being built, the new house prices are raising the prices the old houses are being sold for. I know next to nothing about real estate, so that's just a theory I'm tossing out. The other neighborhood has been finished I think for 5 years, or probably completed around the time this one started being built - give or take a year or two. I don't really know when that one was completed, but many houses there were built back in 2000 even.

[ZakAttack]

We're also in a newer section of 22193. Our house went up 27K, or 7.5% from last year's assessment. Looks like homes are selling in our neighborhood for roughly 60K over the assessed values recently.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by HEATHER72

Our assessed value went down 6.65%, which is of course less than what we paid. At least the amount of taxes we pay has gone down since 2006. I don't fret over the assessed value since I don't plan on selling any time soon.

For the record, the houses like mine in my neighborhood have been selling for about $60K over the assessed value. The exact same houses in another neighborhood about 3 miles away are selling for around the assessed value... weird.

It's weird but true that the assessments seem to have very little connection to how much a house sells for.

[AmandaVA]

Ours decreased about 3%, although it's still at a bit more than what we paid last year. Not too bad. We're in 22193 (Dale City) and not concerned about that assessment since we plan to be here for a long time!

[ngadude]

Originally Posted by Caladium

It's weird but true that the assessments seem to have very little connection to how much a house sells for.

That's definitely true. You would think they would look at recent comparable sales in the last few months - if possible. There doesn't seem to be much correlation in my neighborhood between assessments and what used houses are selling for there. I find it very strange, but don't mind that the assessed value is much lower $40K - $60K than what recent used house sales have been. It keeps my taxes low, but PWC is kind of shooting themselves in the foot. They might not need to make the tax rate so high if assessed values were reflective of what the houses actually are selling for.

Of course, it may not be that way all over PWC, but at least in my neighborhood, which is a relatively new neighborhood - it seems to be.