Posted on 02/13/2021 7:48:55 AM PST by Brian Griffin
I think it’s ridiculous how it just keeps going up. Seems nothing can be done other than to sell your home. Then what? Move into an apartment where you have no idea who your neighbors are and what goes on in those apartments such as drugs, parties, etc?
Another thought...if you are at least 65 years of age, some states such as AZ allow you to freeze your taxes from what I understand. Worth checking in to.
I’ve always felt there should be a law that if they can tax my property based on a bogus assessment of property value, then the city must purchase my property at their assessed price in cash within 30 days of the request. If they think my house is worth $450k when the market says it is only $380k, I’ll happily take that bonus.
> The phrase “I’d prefer not to.”, strikes me as simple selfishness. Many people want “free stuff”. Why should they get it? <
I’m a bit confused by your post, to the poInt that I wonder if you read all of my post #2. Or maybe you are responding to the wrong post. At the end of my post I said: “I’d much rather see property taxes abolished, and replaced by some sort of sales tax.“
There is, of course, no free lunch. But property taxes have always struck me as being rather arbitrary. My house is worth $125,000 just because some assessor says so. I very much doubt if I could get that amount should I sell tomorrow.
And property taxes put a real burden on older folks on a fixed income. Better to have some sort of sales tax, as I noted earlier.
“..they can tax my property based on a bogus assessment of property value,”
There it is. The Covid has hit the state of Ohio hard moneywise. The state and local bureaucrats are going to find “their” money somehow. We have a rino as governor too, so there’s that. Mike DeWine’s days are numbered though. People are waking up. John Kasich tried to get rid of all the septic tanks in the state as governor. I live in a rural county and am now paying nearly $500 a year for sewer. It has already doubled in just a few short years.
> If they think my house is worth $450k when the market says it is only $380k, I’ll happily take that bonus. <
I don’t know what it’s like in your neck of the woods, but the assessors in my county are way ahead of you. My house is assessed at $125,000. I arrived at that number by working backwards from my tax bill
My tax bill says something like $80,000. The county artificially lowers the value, then they put a higher millage on that lower value.
It’s actually pretty clever. Some homeowners think they’re getting away with something, because their homes are assessed “too low”. Meanwhile the county tax officials are laughing all the way to the bank.
Local government should be under a requirement to pay 90% of the assessed value to the owner with "here's the keys" clause.
After all, they could make their money back plus the 10%, couldn't they?
“My house is worth $125,000 just because some assessor says so. I very much doubt if I could get that amount should I sell tomorrow.”
In a booming market such as I have in my Florida county, it is very hard to know the market value of a house.
I don’t know the market value of my house and my guess might be off by $40,000.
My former neighbors were asking $279,000 for their house after buying it for $199,000 and putting in about $40,000 of work. I thought it wouldn’t sell. It sold to the first couple who looked.
The market value in Florida is computed for the time 10 months before the tax bill comes.
The best check on the tax assessor’s work is probably houses listed for sale as of January 1 that sell shortly afterward.
The real estate industry price is only normally obtainable with professional help, so my tax assessor uses about a 12% reduction for commissions, mortgage points and other seller-> buyer help.
“Seems nothing can be done other than to sell your home.”
I live in Florida and there are protections against market craziness.
Nobody has fixed Florida home insurance craziness yet.
You’re complicating something that can be very simple.
I’m no talking about building costs. I’m talking about how to set a tax rate based on an actual number and multiplier as opposed to someone’s opinion.
Or, if we were to use the actual Appraiser definition: a fair and impartial analysis of the homes value..... or whatever the hell it was when i took the class 25 years ago.
The millage rate is X per square foot.
For example: millage rate is $1 per square foot. You own a 3000sf home. You pay $3000 a year. You own a 1500sf home....$1500 a year. County costs go up due to increases in health care or something, millage rate goes up to $1.02 per square foot. Everyone chips in.
No more squeezing money from folks on one side of town while others, on the other side of town, are untouched. Which is something they have no problem doing where I live unfortunately.
Keep It Simple
Exactly.
A simple math equation. Everything is on the table. And everyone has skin in the game.
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