03-16-2008, 05:49 AM
quote:
If your homes are owner-occupied (and you bought more than a year ago) they should not be making any dramatic adjustments. KathyH, since you just bought, they may be making an "on-sale"-type adjustment this year, and next year you'll be subject to the 3% cap -- however, I'd still call them and make sure they are assessing properly.
Thank you John!
Let me explain a little more. first, I didn't get my new bill yet, I had a reason to call (got a notice from my lender that they wanted to increase my impound account). The bills aren't out yet and they weren't all that happy to figure it out for me on the phone, so I don't suggest everyone bombard them with questions. The bills will be out soon.
I called the County because I THOUGHT my taxes might be less due to having twice the exemption of the prior owner. The prior taxes were $768 with a principal residence exemption. I wanted to check to see what effect my exemptions had.
As John said, my increase is due to it selling and not being capped this year. However, they admitted there had been a large jump in getting closer to the actual real estate market prices.
The owner before me, had also bought the home only a year prior, so his $768 was not under a cap either. He paid about 2/3 of what I did, so I expected mine to go up, but I also have a 50K exemption on value that he didn't have, so I was surprised that my taxes increased to over $1300.
BUT -- I don't think you folks in Puna need to sweat it so much, because prices in Puna dropped last year, far as I can tell. I live on Hamakua side, where there are not so many properties on the market, and the prices seem to be hanging in there.