Can property taxes be lowered? (special situation)

Mazeroth · July 2007

My wife and I are looking to bid on a short sale house that sold for $165,000 4 years ago and is now listed at $123,000. The auditor's site says the house is appraised at $166,000 but in the condition it's in I think that's WAY too high. The property taxes are $3300/year for the house but looking at houses similar to this one they should be more like $2400-$2600. Is it possible to contact the auditor's office or anyone else and have the appraisal dropped in hopes of lowering property taxes? Or will they laugh at me and continue to eat their Grape Nuts?

Thanks!

wallstreet · July 2007

It's worth what the market will bear. If you buy the house for 123K, your property taxes should reflect the current market conditions.

Early B. · July 2007

The rules change based on locality. Nevertheless, you should be able to formally dispute a tax assessment after you buy the home, of course.

disneyjoe7 · July 2007

It all depends on the assessed value, so a house bought at 123k could be taxed on that amount. Where a house at the same value could be taxed at 65k on the tax books, this could be the reason for the difference you see. Tell me about it SUCKS.

schwarcw · July 2007

Early B. wrote: »

The rules change based on locality. Nevertheless, you should be able to formally dispute a tax assessment after you buy the home, of course.

Correct!

Most of the time, no matter where you live, you can appeal your assessment. Even if you paid more than the "market value". Depends here you live. Contact your local tax office or a real estate agent in your area. The good ones know the ropes.

sucks2beme · July 2007

schwarcw wrote: »

Correct!

Most of the time, no matter where you live, you can appeal your assessment. Even if you paid more than the "market value". Depends here you live. Contact your local tax office or a real estate agent in your area. The good ones know the ropes.

Market value is the last word. If you pay less, the appraisal should follow that
when you bring it to their attention. But do expect it to rise to what the others are valued at in a couple of years. They assume it's par with other local houses until proven otherwise. You'd be surprized by the number of people that claim they're too high, even when the appraisal is too low!
Sad when the city looks at it and has to raise it!

mark090852 · July 2007

Here in our county in Pennsylvania the property taxes are based on assessed value. Market value is irrelevant. Every ten years or so a new assessment is conducted and taxes are adjusted accordingly. We can dispute the assessment and have it reviewed so there is theoretically a method to have taxes lowered.

Not sure about other states.

heiney9 · July 2007

Around here you'd get laughed at. As with any county you can contest all you want, whether it will actually get you a reduction.........not likely. ****, for 2 years my bro has been fighting the tax assessors office here in this county just to get a $5000 owner occupied exemption on his taxes for this year and last year retroactive. Nothing but the run around from the assessors office, title company and the lawyer who supposedly was looking out for him at closing.

I work for a title compay and I actually noticed on hsi tax bill he wasn't getting the owner occupied exemption. I work with the assessors office on a weekly basis and still couldn't get any help for him. Finally they got it corrected on this years taxes but he is SOL for the previous years.

Have you looked at the other tax bill in question (the lower one)? If there is an owner occupied exemption, over 65, or senior freeze the taxes atleast around here are quite a bit lower, epecially if one has all 3. If the house in question were around here and was rental property none of these exemptions would apply and the tax rate would be generally higher.

Also some properties are assessed at different times so everyone maybe paying the same percentage but on something that hasn't been as recently assessed. Bottom line is PROPERTY TAXES SUCK as far as fair and equitable distribution goes. If the taxes are too high on the property you want to buy, walk away.

H9

trubluluc · March 2008

You absolutely can dispute the amount of property tax.
It should be based on the sale (not listing) price of the home.
But as in most things govermental , the county accessor is in no hurry to lower your property tax,
you'll have to ask for a re-appraisal if the don't recalculate based on purchase price.

-Luc