Two-bill plan emerging for reassessments (Pittsburgh: 2015, prices, rich)

[ML North]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but any improvements should not matter since the assessments are supposed to reflect 2010 home values not current ones.

That's not correct. So my understanding of how it works is that your assessed value is calculated not based on what the value of your house was in the base year, but rather what the value of your house would have been in the base year, given it's current condition.

And that's the way it works for new construction. When using the 2002 base year system, if you built a house in 2008 valued at $100k, the assessed value would have been calculated by determining what the value of a similar new construction home was in 2002. You can't just rewind.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but any improvements should not matter since the assessments are supposed to reflect 2010 home values not current ones.

Improvements are supposed to be assessed at their base-year value and added to the total assessment (edit: or what ML North said).

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by XRiteMA98

But what strucks me is that they can't do this all of a sudden. Why not have people do the reassesments pretty much like they did the census - have someone go in every person's house and assess correctly - and then slowly increase the tax, like landlord increase the rent or something.

The reason they don't do a comprehensive assessment of every property is that would be really expensive.

The reason they are doing it all at once is that this is all happening because of a court case in which it was held that certain property owners' state-constitutional rights were being violated by going so long without a reassessment. Further delays in reassessing the properties would just be adding to those violations, since their taxes won't get to where they should be until everyone gets reassessed and the millages are adjusted accordingly.

Thus the only way to prevent this from happening again, barring a change in the state constitution, is to start reassessing more frequently, such that the changes can be more gradual.

[BrianTH]

Looks like a lot of big assessment increases for Downtown properties as well:

Commercial properties also hit hard by latest assessments

We don't have a total for the City's commercial properties yet, but if they increased at more than 46%, then the residential owners should collectively get a tax break when the millages are reset.

A little reminder of how important the Downtown properties are to the overall property tax picture in the City:

[gg]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Looks like a lot of big assessment increases for Downtown properties as well

Wow, I just looked at the building I was thinking of buying. Assessed value more than tripled. I am not a buyer anymore. They lost me.

[BrianTH]

Briem also takes a first cut at figuring out how many properties in the City are due for a tax cut as a result of the reassessment, and gets about 60%. This is before the commercial properties get factored in, which could move the line either way, but generally that makes sense given the asymmetric distribution of property values:

Nullspace: Anger, Angst, Assessments

[greg42]

I believe the assessed value of our office condo space here downtown has nearly tripled according to the bill in the mail. The owner mentioned it yesterday. I don't believe it is really correct though. Don't think we could sell it for anywhere near that.

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Wow, I just looked at the building I was thinking of buying. Assessed value more than tripled. I am not a buyer anymore. They lost me.

Ok, what is the asking price of the building? What is the assessed value of the building. We want to know how accurate the assessed value is?

Since you bailed on the sale, maybe post the address.

[gg]

Originally Posted by robrobrob

Ok, what is the asking price of the building? What is the assessed value of the building. We want to know how accurate the assessed value is?

Since you bailed on the sale, maybe post the address.

The total cost of the package is $160,000. That includes a business that is probably worth $70K at present. The old assessed value was around $65K, the new value is $170K, so it about tripled. I might post what it is later, but not yet. I am still kicking it around, but now it is very unlikely. I am going to call the person handling the property and tell him about the assessment change. The tax load will be a big problem for the current owner. The value in this investment would be more "potential" since the business wasn't run very well in the past. I still believe in the investment, but that tax load is scary.

[ML North]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Briem also takes a first cut at figuring out how many properties in the City are due for a tax cut as a result of the reassessment, and gets about 60%. This is before the commercial properties get factored in, which could move the line either way, but generally that makes sense given the asymmetric distribution of property values:

Nullspace: Anger, Angst, Assessments

This is really excellent work, and the article is probably the best explanation of the reassessment and its implications that I've seen.

Anyway, maybe I'm just not really thinking about this, but what conclusions, if any, can be drawn from the asymmetric tails?