Valuation and worth are totally separate things.
Residential lots are taxed at the highest valuation.
Agricultural is a fraction of that. Club use even less. Common area in an HOA next to nothing.
A developer deeded an undeveloped lot to an HOA client of mine. For years, the Association paid several thousand in property taxes. I pointed out that the lot was designated as “Residential” by the county tax accessor instead of “CE”. After a quick tax hearing, the classification was changed to “CE” (common element) and the appraised value dropped from over $300,000 for that lot to $1.
Only the land use designation on the tax rolls changed. That’s it. Nothing else.
If the Association changed it back, the valuation would go back up to over $300,000. They would take the property tax hit but could then sell it for that or more on the open market.
The valuation may be $1 based on land use, but the worth is $300,000.
One acre lots in Palm Beach go for $100,000,000. Mara Lago has 17 acres plus improvements. It’s easily worth over $1 billion but because of its current land use designation, it is only valued at $28 million for tax purposes (completely legal, I might add. The Palm Beach Golf Club down the street from Mara Lago is only valued at $18M). Why? Because in its current iteration, Trump will not parcel it out and develop it as residential lots. A rezoning hearing to convert it back to residential and viola! Instantly valued back at nearly $2B for tax purposes.
This judge is a clown and the lying MSM are idiots. They are all intentionally conflating value and worth in a sick attempt to “get Trump.”
People in real estate know they are full of crap.
Thank you for the well written description of how the process works, in most locales.