As I understand things, people should be getting their reassessment letters this week.

I have already heard from several people who have had dramatic reductions in assessment since 2006. Their new numbers were 40% lower!

While most would initially think this “terrific,” at some point I believe too low an assessment will put negative pressure on home prices. After all, if you had a 2006 assessment at $800,000, but you realistically thought you could get no more than $650,000 for your home, hearing that your assessment went down 40%, to under $500,000, is sure going to make it more difficult to sell your house for $650K.

Of course, maybe I just don’t “understand” the real estate market. But then again I did check this logic out with one of my Realtor sources.

At the other end of the spectrum, I have heard of a half dozen assessments that stayed exactly the same!

Upon further investigation, I have learned that the ONLY statistic on the new reassessment is the average decline, leading to an INITIAL calculation of the new tax rate.

It turns out that the average decline is 19%, which means the tax rate needs to come up by that amount to keep everything even. Until, of course, the new budget comes out, which will have who knows what an increase. Continue Reading