Just looked up how much in taxes I'll be paying for 2008....

[david_mcmanus]

A whopping $50 increase for the year. This is in King County in a home that is assessed around $400K. After 4 years of property tax decreases around $100 per year, now they hit me with the whopping $50 This is not a shitbox house either: built in 2002, 2100 sf, etc, etc..... Heh, maybe they haven't caught up with my neighborhood yet.

-David

[blueskitten]

I'm jealous. King County does seem to let assessments lag behind the market value, as least they did over the last few years in the condo I owned (gotta wonder if they'll be "sticky on the way down" though).

But now I'm moving to Pierce County, and a couple of years ago evidently Pierce decided it needed to "catch up" with its assessments and homes across the board have seen double-digit valuation increases for the past three years. It was especially bad in 2006 and 2007 - in my new neighborhood the tax assessments have gone up 20% per year.

The county got way ahead of itself - the house I am in the process of purchasing is overvalued by 30% (probably more, since the new valuations haven't come out yet). Needless to say I'm appealing the assessment as soon as we close.

[rose-colored-coolaid]

In other tax news, you'll all be glad to hear that my sales tax, income tax, and social security tax stayed about the same as last year.