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Home > No, my property taxes likely won't drop much at all

No, my property taxes likely won't drop much at all

January 13th, 2013 at 04:45 pm

I guess I hadn't really thought this through. You coudln't reasonably expect that just because your home value dropped substantially, that the town/schools would then cut an equal amount from their budgets.

"There have been drastic reductions in property values since then," he said. "Since most homes in the town sales ratio are down around 30 percent, homeowners should expect their revaluation to mirror that trend."

"...The drop in assessments will continue to assure everyone pays an equitable share of property taxes, it does not mean they will see a 30 percent reduction in their tax bill. That is because the cost to run the community from a government standpoint, cannot retract by 30 percent.

"The level of tax revenue will nearly balance out by slight increases in auto and personal property taxation, slight increases on some of the town's larger homes, and a countering increase in the mill rate. A mill represents one dollar of taxation for every $1,000 in taxable property.

"There has to be an adjustment against the grand levy, which is the overall cost to run the town," he said. "The amount needed to function remains constant, even though the assessment of properties decline to correspond with the drop in property values."

Big bummer.

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

7 Responses to “No, my property taxes likely won't drop much at all”

  1. MonkeyMama Says:
    January 13th, 2013 at 04:55 pm 1358096130
    1358096130

    Very big bummer!!

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    January 13th, 2013 at 05:42 pm 1358098954
    1358098954

    Darn, but not surprising!

  3. littlegopher Says:
    January 13th, 2013 at 05:48 pm 1358099329
    1358099329

    I was going to post in your last entry that our property taxes have flatlined for several years at the same time the value on our house has gone down substantially, and for the reasons you mention above. City, county and schools have all been tightening the budgets to keep the taxes fairly close to static, but they still need the dollars.

    What's hard is for people like my dad-in-law, who bought, built or remodeled their houses as part of their investments for retirement. We never left our starter home - our "investment" went into our four girls - and maybe this is working in our favor Smile

    You get hit from all sides along the front lines nearing retirement... Frown

  4. Analise Says:
    January 13th, 2013 at 06:22 pm 1358101353
    1358101353

    I'm sorry it didn't work out the way you expected, but I'm not surprised. When our home value dropped significantly, I also thought our taxes would be lower. WRONG! Our tax district raised the levy (to the max allowed legally) so we are actually paying slightly more.

  5. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    January 13th, 2013 at 07:02 pm 1358103724
    1358103724

    Ahhh... that stinks. Sorry.

  6. mjrube94 Says:
    January 14th, 2013 at 02:25 am 1358130351
    1358130351

    We're in the same boat. No relief from huge northeast property taxes!

  7. snafu Says:
    January 14th, 2013 at 02:58 am 1358132306
    1358132306

    Yes, like other communities our tax assessments dropped significantly but council has raised the Mill rate [levy] 5% every year since 2009. They keep expanding the bureaucracy, costs have increased substantively inspite of their constantly telling us inflation remains at 2%.

    We're seeing house prices s-l-o-w-l-y increasing so when they get back to 2008 levels property taxes here will have increased by a third I figure.

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