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Where I’m at in Fairfax County, the budget is facing some serious strain due to decreased RE tax collections. The county came up with an interesting adjustment to the assesments: slash the assessed value of the structure, and assess the land at it’s lot value to an infill developer.

Net outcome is that assesments haven’t fallen much, though market values of existing homes have come down significantly.

Read more here:

http://www.metrokc.gov/Assessor/

-Rick

That only works if the high end and low end are in the same city so they are paying the same tax rates.

Doesn’t work if the high end is Seattle and the low end is Kent, because each city finances its spending from its own tax base.

Can someone who has been here longer than I have explain if that is normal here or does it indicate that market prices grew much faster than tax assessments recently?

Most places say that the tax assessment is below the market price but Im curious how close they normally are in the Seattle area.

thanks

if values in the low end fall faster than in the high end (as has been seen elsewhere and expected here), the low end homes with be worth a smaller fraction of the total property value, so their property taxes should decline.

or increase less.

so, good news for anyone who owns a cheap place and doesn’t care what it is worth. your plummeting property value should save you some money in taxes.

property insurance could decrease somewhat, as well. not a big deal for most people, but if you’re old, on a fixed income, and don’t want to move, maybe this small reduction of costs will help.

http://www.metrokc.gov/Assessor/PropertyTaxes.htm

“The state constitution, statutory levy limits set by the legislature and excess levies approved by the voters are used to calculate the total property tax levy. The tax rate on your property is the figure resulting from dividing the dollar amount required for the taxing district by the total value of property within the district and then adding up the rates of the various districts in which your property is located. The assessed value of your property, multiplied by the combined rate, produces a tax amount which is your fair share of the total property tax levy in your area.”

That dollar amount required is the key, and it isn’t determined by assessed values, it’s determined by revenue needed. So unless your assessed value falls significantly compared to other areas, you won’t be paying less, they’ll just tax you at a higher rate to make up for the decline in assessed value.

Gill

Thank you ma’am, may I have another?