Question Regarding Property Taxes (Glendale, Goodyear: car rental, sales, foreclosure)

[Xica_da_Silva]

So, I found what appears to be the perfect home for me...but there's a catch. Even though the house costs only about $180,000, the taxes are an unusually exorbitant $2400/yr. I've never seen any of the houses that I've looked at in this neighborhood in the less than $200,000 range have taxes more than say, $1500/yr.

Now, I wonder if what may have caused the problem is that the city has the correct address on file for the property, but both the county and post office have the wrong address on file? It's a slight numerical typo, not a street name issue(in fact, the street number the city has actually does not exist), but I wonder if it's causing them to charge me 'double' the amount of taxes that would be the norm for the property?

This being the case, once I get the seller to sort out the address situation, do you think I might have a chance of convincing the tax assessor's to lower my tax rate? Or am I just dreamin'?

[Captain Bill]

You can locate the formula on the web for computing property taxes. Find that and make your own computations to see what the taxes should be. If the stated taxes don't agree with your computations, then call the tax assessor office and discuss it with them.

[observer53]

Those do sound really high. Of course the "cost" of the house and the assessed value are different things, but I'm with Captain Bill. I'd be checking that formula, and maybe looking at the taxes on other similar houses on the same area (you can do address searches) to see how it all adds up.

[altus2006]

The taxes on my house are really high and I called the assessor's office about when they will come down. They are based on the original sales price which is about 60% higher than what we paid for it in foreclosure. They told me it takes about 18 months to get the rates lowered. Good for Goodyear, bad for me.

altus2006

[observer53]

Originally Posted by altus2006

The taxes on my house are really high and I called the assessor's office about when they will come down. They are based on the original sales price which is about 60% higher than what we paid for it in foreclosure. They told me it takes about 18 months to get the rates lowered. Good for Goodyear, bad for me.

altus2006

The taxes do lag behind the bubble burst. It's not influenced just by the price of YOUR house, it's the prices in the whole area. I'm expecting mine to go down next year. This year, they were up to almost 2000.00.

[Boompa]

Originally Posted by altus2006

The taxes on my house are really high and I called the assessor's office about when they will come down. They are based on the original sales price which is about 60% higher than what we paid for it in foreclosure. They told me it takes about 18 months to get the rates lowered. Good for Goodyear, bad for me.

altus2006

Goodyear has to pay for that "Stadium"

[observer53]

Originally Posted by Boompa

Goodyear has to pay for that "Stadium"

Which stadium? I think there is a new ballpark for spring training in Goodyear, but if you mean UofP, that's in Glendale. The stadium district for the spring training facilities, UofP stadium, etc, is a COUNTY agency, not city. We are all paying for the stadiums, actually, which are paid by car rental fees and bed taxes, mostly, and perhaps some other taxes-- not so much property taxes.

[goodfellas17]

I live in a $140,000 house in Illinois and pay $4500 in property taxes. I realize that we have to pay to support our former governors in prison but that is ridiculous. Your property tax situation gives me one more reason to consider moving to Arizona when I retire.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by goodfellas17

I live in a $140,000 house in Illinois and pay $4500 in property taxes. I realize that we have to pay to support our former governors in prison but that is ridiculous. Your property tax situation gives me one more reason to consider moving to Arizona when I retire.

Property taxes are relatively low here compared to a number of other states. At least you have a bit of a sense of humor about it!