By Keith Loria
The expenses associated with owning and maintaining a home can be a shock to new homeowners, however, a current estimate of what your new home is worth can often times work in your favor when it comes to lowering your property taxes. If you recently purchased a home, it’s a good bet that you may have bought the house for a price lower than the property value, so sometimes taxes can be lowered if the value has changed.
“A tax assessment is an estimate on the value of your property solely for the purpose of determining how much you owe in property taxes,” said Peter Hoegen, an attorney with Hoegen & Associates, PC in Pennsylvania who specializes in tax assessments.
Lowering property taxes isn’t the only reason that homeowners go through the reassessment process. Another reason for a reassessment is for insurance purposes, to make sure the home has an appropriate level of coverage. Additionally, homeowners may opt for a reassessment due to changes in value that have been caused by the downturn in the economy.
For those who may be thinking of selling, an assessment is a good way to learn if the house is worth more than what is owed, and can provide valuable data for homeowners who are looking to get a lower mortgage rate.
“If you are thinking of having your home assessed for a possible readjusting of the value, it’s important to understand the protocol and timelines that your city or state has, because all are different,” Hoegen said.
The first step is to begin with the county assessor’s office. In 2012, the process has become much simpler for some, as more places are allowing homeowners to appeal tax assessments online. If that’s not an option where you live, plan a visit to your local assessor’s office to register for an appeal.
The appeal process is most commonly conducted by someone coming out and inspecting the property and comparing it to neighboring houses. Some will rely on computer models, but that could be problematic because you’re not seeing everything that can be viewed with the naked eye.
Although the appeal process itself can be relatively quick, if it’s clear that a change needs to be made, actually having someone come out to your property to perform the assessment can take anywhere from a month to a year, depending on the amount of people following suit. In today’s housing market, with property values decreasing in many areas, more people are turning to reassessments to lower their taxes.
When making your case, be sure to have documents ready that show what homes in the neighborhood have sold for. Prices of comparable homes that have sold in the past six to 12 months will be most helpful to build your case. Much of this data can be found on the Internet, but the real estate agent who helped you buy your home can assist in gathering the information as well.
Remember, assessed value is often not equal to market value. Many times, an assessment is only a percentage of what the home could actually be sold for, so appealing the value of your home might not be as financially advantageous as you think. The last thing you want is for your taxes to rise because the house is now worth more.
For more information about property reassessment, please contact our office today.
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