07-17-2009, 06:44 PM
Bob,
The looks you talk about... My former father in-law gets when his neighbors stop by their little 2 and 5 acre vacation homes and visit him on his 60 acre place. Most are not aware of the owner occupied exemptions and storm off to the assessors office comparing his spread to theirs and get nowhere. The tax rates are not far removed from the mainland rates, but the owner occupied exemptions and the relatively lower assessments do make a huge difference when comparing the mainland to Hawaii, agreed.
In general-
The only thing that is ticking me off is when the Hawaii assessor drove all the assessed vacant lot values up to the trumped up predatory lending values of 2007. I’m sure they did this to folks who bought homes during that time also (to whom I feel for deeply what they have to deal with today). They (the assessors) then kicked back and ignored the obvious fall back to normal values and claimed not enough comps by virtue of very few sales in 2008. That's the thing that is torking my butt. Folks like to claim the county moves slow... well the assessor didn't move slow when they astronomically hiked up the vacant land assessments in 2007, they move how and when they want, it's not that they move slow.
So this notion of slow moving Hawaii government with respect to the assessors is bull as its speed is guided more by motive.
E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa.
The looks you talk about... My former father in-law gets when his neighbors stop by their little 2 and 5 acre vacation homes and visit him on his 60 acre place. Most are not aware of the owner occupied exemptions and storm off to the assessors office comparing his spread to theirs and get nowhere. The tax rates are not far removed from the mainland rates, but the owner occupied exemptions and the relatively lower assessments do make a huge difference when comparing the mainland to Hawaii, agreed.
In general-
The only thing that is ticking me off is when the Hawaii assessor drove all the assessed vacant lot values up to the trumped up predatory lending values of 2007. I’m sure they did this to folks who bought homes during that time also (to whom I feel for deeply what they have to deal with today). They (the assessors) then kicked back and ignored the obvious fall back to normal values and claimed not enough comps by virtue of very few sales in 2008. That's the thing that is torking my butt. Folks like to claim the county moves slow... well the assessor didn't move slow when they astronomically hiked up the vacant land assessments in 2007, they move how and when they want, it's not that they move slow.
So this notion of slow moving Hawaii government with respect to the assessors is bull as its speed is guided more by motive.
E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa.