Tennessee property taxes question (Knoxville: 2013, houses, calculator)

[pat11784]

I've been searching properties in TN on Zillow and it appears most property taxes were almost halved 5-7 years ago, is this possible or is Zillow inaccurate?

[Serious Conversation]

Here in upper east TN, mill rates are about 0.5%-0.7% of the market value of the property. No idea when they were last cut.

[creeksitter]

Are you looking at the exact same house? The difference in comparable houses could be one is inside the city limits and the other outside. At least in Knoxville city taxes pay for trash, brush pick up and fire protection.

[pat11784]

Originally Posted by creeksitter

Are you looking at the exact same house? The difference in comparable houses could be one is inside the city limits and the other outside. At least in Knoxville city taxes pay for trash, brush pick up and fire protection.

No, on zillow they list property tax history and many houses had their taxes get halved from what they once were, usually around 5-7 years ago.

[piedmont]

Rates vary quite a bit by county, as well. Re-adjustment can also vary by county or city location, or by a change of status (ex. greenbelt tax relief or ag status).

Many (but not all, such as Knox) are available through this site: https://assessment.cot.tn.gov/RE_Assessment/

[thunderstruck666]

Here's a good site to look up rates.
https://smartasset.com/taxes/tenness...tax-calculator

[BirdieBelle]

Originally Posted by pat11784

No, on zillow they list property tax history and many houses had their taxes get halved from what they once were, usually around 5-7 years ago.

This really didn't happen where I live. While values have gone up, our tax rate has stayed about the same forever.

In Knox County, this article provides one explanation:

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/...nty/100409696/

"In 2009, a 15 percent hike in assessments drew outrage from county property owners at a time when the country's housing market was crashing.

By the end of the informal appeals stage then, the office received a record number of complaints — roughly 16,500 — equating to reductions of $130 million in total assessed value for real property.

In 2013, roughly 7,500 protests were filed either online, over the telephone or in person during a two-week informal appeals phase and appraisers made adjustments to about half of them."

[NY Annie]

Are you talking about city or county taxes; or both together? Some websites don't report both taxes and they are assessed separately, so it's important to know which are being reported. Outside of a "city", there's only county taxes and there are tons of "cities" and "towns" which are barely more than a combination townhall/post office/maintenance/police dept/firehouse all in the same building. Those places do assess taxes and may even have a town water supply; some also have their own police (might be 1 officer working 8-4 5 days/wk. Some locations don't have anything to indicate there is a town other than a name. We live "in the county" so our only tax is to the county and we pay extra for trash pick-up. I've been told we're in a "town" but darned if I can figure it out.