Has anyone been to an Allegheny Assessment Appeal yet? (houses, neighbourhoods)

[gg]

Originally Posted by juliegt

Good luck to you! I hope you win. I must admit that this reassessment stuff makes me nervous. I'm worried about how it will impact me with the home I am in the process of buying. I'm planning to do a lot of work on the place which should increase value. I'm concerned about how that will affect my tax liability.

Actually, I think you will be in a better situation. The taxes on the home you are buying will have the assessment in place. Lets have a look at your situation a little closer. I am going to use low round simple numbers not reflecting actual purchase prices.

1. You purchase a home for $100K and the assessment is $125K. You can fight for your taxes to be lowered and will have a very good chance of winning.
2. You purchase a home for $100K and it is assessed at $80K. Be prepared to pay on the purchase price incase the school district takes you to court and wins. If you keep the $80K assessment, then you are that much further ahead.

After this reassessment is done, things will be more clear for a homeowner. The only issue that we will face in this region is the school tax increases because of the pension/healthcare problem that is going to grow each year. At least those increases won't double your taxes or have massive impacts in one year.

Anyway, I feel you are in a better position now that the reassessment is there for you to see.

[kjtocool]

I had my assessment hearing on Saturday morning (school district is appealing my assessment). I went in, district went first, presented 3 comparable properties supporting their case and said they wanted the assessment based on the sales price. They didn't bring a copy of their documentation for me, which I questioned, but the guy behind the desk said it didn't matter because it's public information and we continued on.

I then presented my comparables, and presented a HUD and contract showing a $12k+ sellers assist. One of my comparables is the same neighborhood, same builder, same year, same basic architectural design (houses look pretty identical), and it sold in 2010 for my assessed value. All told, the process took less than 10 minutes. No idea when I'll find out the decision. I'm hoping they're as hard on the school districts as they are on homeowners who appeal.

[Garvdog]

It has got to be confusing for someone buying a home right now with this assessment mess going on. Heck, it was already confusing enough before. The fact is there is no way right now to determine how much you will be paying in taxes starting next year. You must guess. The only smart thing to do is take your expected sale price or the 2013 assessed value, use the higher number of the two, assume the tax rates will not change, and calculate a "worst case scenario" number. In most cases that number will be much higher than reality, but better safe than sorry.

[Copanut]

Just base your taxes on the sale price, chances are the assessed value will be lower than the sp. If it's higher, appeal next year, take your sales agreement with you, and it will be lowered.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by kjtocool

I had my assessment hearing on Saturday morning (school district is appealing my assessment). I went in, district went first, presented 3 comparable properties supporting their case and said they wanted the assessment based on the sales price. They didn't bring a copy of their documentation for me, which I questioned, but the guy behind the desk said it didn't matter because it's public information and we continued on.

I then presented my comparables, and presented a HUD and contract showing a $12k+ sellers assist. One of my comparables is the same neighborhood, same builder, same year, same basic architectural design (houses look pretty identical), and it sold in 2010 for my assessed value. All told, the process took less than 10 minutes. No idea when I'll find out the decision. I'm hoping they're as hard on the school districts as they are on homeowners who appeal.

My guess is your in the 300K range, that's usually what the SDs go after. Hate to say it, but if your house is assessed significantly lower than the sales price, you'll see an increase in the assessment, no matter what your neighbor's value is.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Copanut

My guess is your in the 300K range, that's usually what the SDs go after. Hate to say it, but if your house is assessed significantly lower than the sales price, you'll see an increase in the assessment, no matter what your neighbor's value is.

FWIW, this isn't true in all districts. I have a crap rental in Sharpsburg and it is worth pennies and the district took me to court about it. Not anywhere near $300K let alone $70K. Just want people to realize some districts will take any valued property and make a case out of it.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

FWIW, this isn't true in all districts. I have a crap rental in Sharpsburg and it is worth pennies and the district took me to court about it. Not anywhere near $300K let alone $70K. Just want people to realize some districts will take any valued property and make a case out of it.

You're correct, but FC is very different from USC, Mt. Lebo, or NA. You have some poor areas there, my guess is they can't show favortism and appeal any descrepancy between assessed value and sale price.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Copanut

You're correct, but FC is very different from USC, Mt. Lebo, or NA. You have some poor areas there, my guess is they can't show favortism and appeal any descrepancy between assessed value and sale price.

NA and the others also have a wide range of housing prices. That being said, if someone wanted to sue the school district for going after homes above $300K only, they would have a case. FC has a zillion attorneys living in the area, so they know better to pull that stuff. Probably not enough savvy attorneys out in USC, Mt. Lebo and NA.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

NA and the others also have a wide range of housing prices. That being said, if someone wanted to sue the school district for going after homes above $300K only, they would have a case. FC has a zillion attorneys living in the area, so they know better to pull that stuff. Probably not enough savvy attorneys out in USC, Mt. Lebo and NA.

I don't think you'll find much Section 8 housing or welfare types in NA, Lebo, or USC, unlike the growing amount in Sharpsburg.

[Garvdog]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

NA and the others also have a wide range of housing prices. That being said, if someone wanted to sue the school district for going after homes above $300K only, they would have a case. FC has a zillion attorneys living in the area, so they know better to pull that stuff. Probably not enough savvy attorneys out in USC, Mt. Lebo and NA.

Don't count on the barrier being $300K. I see my SD going after some homes in the $200's. It's more about the difference between sales price and assessed value.