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I was wondering if I'd see a thread on this today!
The assessed value for land on our MLE property went down $5k from last year, but the assessed value for the house went up by 58%! Total assessed value went up 35%.
Frankly, I think last year's assessed value was way too low, but it would be less rude to ramp things up a bit more smoothly.
This kind of almost arbitrary property tax increase based on market value is what led to Proposition 13 in California.
ArtM
I don't know if the Assessor is elected.
What we are seeing now is based on 2007 values, not current market (per the office).
If you speak to Marilyn in the Hilo office, she is intelligent and clear and willing to explain. (hopefully she won't be swamped because I said that).
As she explained, a property is locked into a rate with a 3% increase cap, until it sells, at which point it gets reassessed.
My house is now valued at less than I paid for it last year, so of course I have no grounds for appeal, even though the taxes doubled in spite of my having twice the exemptions of the prior owner. In spite of the fact the prior owner bought it in 2006, so it was not at some artificial low because it hadn't been resold.
Proposition 13 wouldn't help, because it too only keeps rates low until the property sells. I would be fine with a 3% increase.
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The County Assessor is certainly not elected. The County hires appraisers to do the work. Seriously guys, did you really expect the County collecting less money than last year?! The value of the improvements (house) actually should decrease every year for 27.5 years unless you make improvements. The house is assessed based on your building permit when you build the house and not on the Market Value. BTW, if you plan to appeal make sure the gap is more than 10% otherwise your appeal will be thrown out.
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John, I didn't expect the value to decrease, but neither did I expect them to double it! Which they did, in one year, and with no new permits pulled to reflect any upgrades.
The tax office told me they are going by market now; I believe that's why it's going up. Specifically, they are taking sales for the neighborhood and using them as comps, so if the neighborhood has seen mostly upscale home purchases, as mine has, that's reflected.
It's not new that they use closed sales figures. Our vacant land in Hilo was dramatically increased in value in 2005, and when I called about that, they again cited average sales figures to justify the assessment, taken from when we had a very hot market.
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So how did we get into this mess[?][?][?][?]
Many moons ago, when I went to real estate school, they hammered into our heads that Assessed Value and Market Value were two distinct, unrelated numbers (even if coincidently they were the same. Market Value was what a property was worth given willing and able buyer and seller. Assessed Value was a totally fictional number made up to arrive at a tax figure.
But, we, smart people that we are, couldn't keep them straight and historically would use the Assessed value when comparing one property with another. Probably because those numbers were publicly available. I know in pre-internet days, the towns I lived in published an annual report that contained these values. So now we see a shift to where the taxing officials bias their assessments by talking market value. I wish they would remain separate.
In my own humble opinion this whole property tax system sucks on several levels:
1st - why is property tax the way to finance local government? Can anyone convince me that a million dollar property occupied by the typical family of 4 uses more municipal services than a $200,000 house occupied by the typical family of 4? Does it really use 5 times the resources? I'd say for the most part, NEITHER property uses the services, but each family does. Not to be insensitive, but I'd guess a "homeless" family of 4 probably uses more county services than the million $ property family of 4.
2nd - How often does the tax base decrease because there are less taxable properties in the jurisdiction? Somehow, the change in the base should account for the increase in budget. The fact a property may have arbitrarily increased in value on paper doesn't mean it needed more services.
3rd - Wonder how much government expense could be saved if all property tax related positions/tasks were eliminated? Wouldn't be needed if county revenue was based on something non property related. Perhaps collected on a per capita basis of some tax we already pay into the system (income, sales/GET)?
Governments have already gotten around Prop 13 by use of special assessments/fees. Worse than property taxes as I understand most aren't tax deductible.
David
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our lot in nanawale went from 16,500 to 13,500.
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Same boat here, property went down and the structure doubled in assessed value.
The assessed value is still a bit above ½ the selling value.
Let’s see… NJ $13K – HI under $500 in real estate taxes.
The only two differences in services I see are, we don’t have garbage pick-up (and we like going to the dump) and snow removal. Simply another service we don’t need here in HI.
"Many dreams come true and some have silver linings, I look for my dreams and a pocket full of gold" Led Zeppelin
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it cost when it’s free...now here come the taxes.....
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To David M.:
You probably know this already, as should everybody, I would think, but each state has the ability to generate revenues in a variety of ways. Our total tax burden (total state tax revenues) are a combination of income, property, sales, corporate, vehicle, and lots of other taxes, plus user fees for hunting and fishing licenses, professional licenses, toll road and bridge fees, etc.
Each state has the ability (the principle of Federalism) to set whatever rates they choose for each of the above, or have none of any particular category of revenue generator.
Kahunascott says his NJ property taxes are $13k, vs <$500 in HI, but I wonder how the income taxes, sales taxes, etc., compare. NV has no income tax whatsoever, I believe. ID has comparatively high liquor taxes, and I can remember my grandparents stocking up on liquor when they came to CA to visit.
Expenditures have little or no relationship to revenues, at the state and Federal levels. Which irritates me when I see our CA gasoline, vehicle, and other transportation tax money going to fund exorbitant school expenditures on a failed school system, while the roads deteriorate.
I know there are websites which could provide a state-by-state comparison of total tax burdens, I'm just too lazy to look one up to post here. Damon, you busy? It's a chilly, stormy spring day here in CA, but I have to fix my spriklers, anyway.
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Aloha! ;-)
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Haven't got my tax bill yet.Is it time to call the county or should I wait till the end of March? If someone give me the phone #,where the live person will assist,I'd appreciate it.
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quote:
Originally posted by mgeary
I know there are websites which could provide a state-by-state comparison of total tax burdens, I'm just too lazy to look one up to post here. Damon, you busy? ....
I'm not sure if this is what your getting at:
Best and Worst States: The analysis of real estate taxes across states is complicated by the fact multiple local jurisdictions follow different assessment, administration, and reporting procedures. In addition, 37 states also collect property taxes at the state level. Based on data from the 2005 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, the following five states have the lowest median real estate taxes per $1,000 of value. They are Louisiana ($1.72), Hawaii ($2.04), Alabama ($3.10), District of Columbia ($3.76), and Delaware ($3.95). The states with the highest median real estate taxes are Wisconsin ($18.20), Texas ($18.17), Nebraska ($16.69), Vermont ($16.35), and New Hampshire ($16.33).
States like California, Hawaii and the District of Columbia have higher home values than New Jersey but on average collect significantly less real estate taxes per property.
And there is this May 2007 report: Residential Real Estate Tax Rates in the American Community Survey
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