Pigs Are Flying...

ziggy29

ziggy29

Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Oct 12, 2005
Messages
16,483
Location
North Oregon Coast
And in other news...

My property tax appraisal just posted, and it dropped by over 21%...

Looks like everyone appraisals went down somewhat, but mine more than most because I was probably paying more per square foot than most (though I got it down some 2 years ago by challenging it). They seemed to try to bring the value per square foot more in line this time around.

Looks like most folks in the neighborhood are down 5-10% from last year.

Now it remains to be seen how much they jack up tax rates to make up for the shortfall...
 
I haven't received my property tax appraisal yet but since city schools are broke, I wouldn't be surprised to see our tax rates go up (I have heard as much as 10% is possible).
 
Ziggy29, congratulations!!! :D

My property tax (paid in December) was based on the price I paid for my home in 2002, and that is the highest appraisal my house has ever had.

To explain why appraisals were not decreasing in a declining market, our Parish Assessor sent out a stern letter saying that while sales volume was way down, prices were not. Yeah, right? When pigs fly, indeed.

A new assessment is required by law every four years, and it was last year so I guess I'm good until I am 65 (should I choose to stay). The assessment is frozen from age 65 to death. My property tax is $864 so I have no complaints about it.
 
My town is going thru an assessment right now. I got a letter and have to call them to make an appointment to get the inside of my house looked over. Dang, I just repainted and remodeled a bathroom.

If my appraised value goes down (and I think it must, given that it was last done mid bubble) I am sure the town will just increase tax rate so they get the same $$.
 
We got our reduced valuation as well. The real questions are: Do we protest like we did last year? Did they really lower the valuation enough? Or did they make a calculated attempt to make people fall asleep?
 
W2R said:
My property tax is $864 so I have no complaints about it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's definetly a good deal. My condo is only worth $42,000 and I pay $950/yr in property taxes. That's 2.25%. Even if the appraised value goes down that doesn't mean taxes will go down. We're getting charged more to pay for underfunded education costs.
 
W2R said:
My property tax is $864 so I have no complaints about it.
Click to expand...

Louisiana is the best state to be in for property taxes.

The bottom 10 counties in median real estate taxes paid over 2006-2008 are (all from Louisiana), from highest to lowest amount, De Soto Parish ($129); Evangeline Parish ($127); Jefferson Davis Parish ($127); Webster Parish ($125); Sabine parish ($124); Richland Parish ($122); Avoyelles Parish ($120); Vernon Parish ($120); Allen Parish ($119); and Franklin Parish ($117).
 
I was wrong. Due to increased millage it was $872 in 2009, $864 in 2008. I was over at Frank's without my records. Oh well. I'm not complaining, that's for sure.

Assessed value here is 10% of the real(appraised or purchase) value. We get a $7,500 homestead exemption, which means the first $75,000 of the home's value is tax free. In much of rural Louisiana, houses are often worth no more than $75,000 and require no property tax payments.

I paid $160K for my house in 2002, so I pay more than the median property tax for the state. That is to be expected since I live in New Orleans (location, location, location), and my house was just about exactly the median price for my suburb when I bought it.

Any excess money that one might accumulate due to the low property taxes in Louisiana, is absorbed by our high homeowners+flood insurance costs. Oh well.
 
I remember a mind-blowing sales tax when I bought some t-shirts in the French Quarter on the way up north 7 years ago. Isn't the sales tax there near 10%?
 
Orchidflower said:
I remember a mind-blowing sales tax when I bought some t-shirts in the French Quarter on the way up north 7 years ago. Isn't the sales tax there near 10%?
Click to expand...

Yes, our sales tax is very high!! Almost 10%. I guess if they don't get you one way, they'll get you another. :rolleyes:

I like the idea of low property tax, though, in case of financial Armageddon. I can always hold back on buying things in an emergency but I can't hold back on paying my property tax. (pulling my tinfoil hat firmly down over my eyebrows)
 
Here in NH we have on income or sales tax. Property tax is killer tho!
I think its still one of the lowest tax burden states tho.
 
No pigs flying here. My town and county didn't get the memo on property tax assessments. A little higher this year from last, which was a little higher from the year before, which was massively higher from the year before.

And 7.25 percent sales tax. And 3 percent income tax. Yet the state is more broke than ever. Chiggers and scorpions and hurricanes are looking better all the time.
 
Got a nice surprize at the lake .... property tax drop over a GRAND! Seems VT raw land has taken off and is now carrying a higher tax burden (vice developed land). A nieghbor with 25+ acres reports his tax TRIPLED and he's been fighting with the town ever since.
 
My appraisal just showed up today - reduced by 2.3%. City council is cutting the budget and swearing no tax increase. The bureaucratic moron that runs the school district is pleading poverty and asking the school board for a tax increase. Over my dead body - I've voted for all of the past bond elections and then seen how they've screwed that up. Never again. Any school board candidate that wants my vote is going to have to swear to forego tax increases until the district learns how to spend money intelligently.
 
Just peeked again to make sure it wasn't a mistake. Nope -- still down 21% from last year. :)

I read in a local paper the other day that the average appraisal countywide was about 2%. I think the high-rent "resort" lakeside community about 20 miles from here took the brunt of the increases.
 
Our county commissioners just decided to leave tax rates stationary vs. 2009. We only see reassessments every 8 years, so I'm good for 6 more years. Another year of flat property taxes (3 in a row). Unless the City comes knocking with a couple of cents tax increase... grrr!!!
 
Well, it will be interesting to see what happens this year here in Florida with property taxes. My guess is that everyone on my block will be hit with something different, some will go up and some will go down, this seems to be the norm here.

Taxes here are like the stock market, you never know what's going to happen.
 
The pigs are still grounded in my neck of the woods. My appraisal arrived yesterday and is up 4.7%. With the prospect of a rock quarry looming next door I suspect there will be a torchlight parade on the county tax office if my neighbors don't get the decreases we were anticipating.

Now where did I put those matches...
 
pssht. Here in Polk County Oregano they don't send out tax statements till maybe 2 weeks before the taxes are due November 15th. Cuts down on the screaming if we the taxed get ambushed with a surprise amount. We can then appeal the appraised value but not the amount - best be paying first though.
 
REWahoo said:
The pigs are still grounded in my neck of the woods. My appraisal arrived yesterday and is up 4.7%. With the prospect of a rock quarry looming next door I suspect there will be a torchlight parade on the county tax office if my neighbors don't get the decreases we were anticipating.
Click to expand...
The country will probably raise your assessment in hopes of sharing in the huge mineral-rights windfall that the quarry will bring to your holdings...

Our tax assessments are based on local recent sales prices divided by square feet of the lot. It's a crude approximation but if prices have been dropping then the assessment drops too, unless the city council raises the assessment rate. But they've historically proven reluctant to take that step during election years.
 
Nords said:
Our tax assessments are based on local recent sales prices...
Click to expand...
That is allegedly the same criteria our county appraisal district uses.

There are approximately 40 houses in our rural subdivision - six of them have been listed for sale in the past year. One gave up and took his off the market after a few months. Three are still on the market even though at least one of the owners dropped their asking price. Two sold - one was a foreclosure that had been trashed inside and required the buyer to do some major renovation and was priced accordingly. The other was a divorce sale and the lady who owned it was desperate to sell after having the house on the market for more than a year. She lowered her asking price twice during that time and told a neighbor she "Gave the house away just so she could get on with her life".

Add to the above information the looming prospect of a rock quarry starting up next door and I'm hard pressed to see how an increase is justified. It will be interesting to see what the folks at the Appraisal District have to say when I call them next week. They should know me by now since I've protested every increase they've tried to hoist on me for the past three years, especially the 13% increase a couple of years ago that turned out to be a "mistake". (Somehow the files were changed to show our home as new construction and our deck, which I built for less than $5K, was valued at $35K!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

MichaelB
Wendy’s announces drone delivery
Replies
14
Views
451
Koolau
Koolau
S
  • Locked
How dangerous are our streets
Replies
13
Views
451
MichaelB
MichaelB
R
Retirement Date Target Set at Aug/Sept 2025
Replies
1
Views
50
bltkmt
bltkmt
Out-to-Lunch
Please help me game out a cost for a duplex
Replies
14
Views
947
Letj
L
T
How to approach FIRE projections - llc owner, ACA ins & IDR student loans?
Replies
0
Views
211
tpac
T

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom