Couldn’t Resist
April 22nd, 2006 - 2:56 am
The property tax bill arrived today. We always face it with some amount of dread, this year especially since the news has been announcing lately that appraised values on a lot of homes had gone up about 16%. When I handed it to Lin, he just tossed it on his desk and left it unopened. Our tax bill was high enough last year. Neither of us really wanted to know the damage this year.
Well, I couldn’t resist. I opened it.
On the one hand, having your property value decrease by yet another $10k sucks, because it means we still owe exactly what we could sell it for and are therefore stuck living here a while yet. On the other hand, it also means a much lower tax bill. I think Lin won’t be too upset about it. It’s not like we were going to sell the house and move this year anyway.
I’m going to have to do some snooping around at the appraisal office web site this weekend and see what the neighobors’ houses are appraised at now. If it’s the whole neighborhood that has gone down, like last year, I’m not going to be too upset about it. If it’s just our cranky old house, well … I might be a bit disturbed.
Still … it’s a LOT lower tax bill than last year, and I can’t help but feel happy about that at least.
I guess I better go to bed now. Lin went to bed a few hours ago, and I stayed up to watch the last DVD of Return of the King. I’m sort of hoping that even though we have to do yard work this weekend, we can squeeze in a little low-cost fun, like a picnic. I’m in the mood for a picnic. 
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8 Responses to “Couldn’t Resist”
You probably won’t like what I am about to say, but that has never stopped me as you know only to well, but your situation pretty much sucks!
Sure you will be paying less in taxes, but your biggest investment, your home, just lost $10k. You will never make up for that loss in taxes saved. If it is your whole neighborhood that is going down in value, not a good sign of things to come, any money you may be planning on spending to upgrade your home may be better placed in savings. If it is just your home, which I know you love, I would be fighting like hell to keep my appraisal the same as last year’s. When you go to sell your home one day, and you never know when that may happen, you would like to sell for as much if not more than what you paid for it. Otherwise you may as well be renting, which I don’t believe you want to do. One thing which is easy to see is the home owners renters ratio. If that is greater than 50% renters, that is a bad sign for the homeowners. If there are more homeowners maybe you (I see more of a fighter than a meek house mouse) can organize them and see what the neighborhood as a collective body can do to get your values back-up. You and Lin have some tough decisions to think over, I wish you well.
Each neighborhood/home is as individual as the people who live there. I moved into my home 16+yrs ago and at the time I paid $33,500.00. The appraisal is now at over $100,000 and there are people in my neighborhood who have successively fought their tax appraisals and lowered their tax payments only to turn around and sell their home for over what the original tax appraisal was for in the first place.
As long as your neighborhood is isn’t just totally run down you really don’t have to worry about the appraisal of your home being high or low when it comes time to sell. One thing to remember is that there will always be buyers and sellers and as long as you maintain your property then you can get at the going rate for your area.
If your neighborhood does begin to deteriorate at an alarming rate then your may want to sell ASAP. This is something you have to watch in advance of.
I know in my own neighborhood we maintain our home better than average and as a result it has prompted our neighbors to do the same. If I mow the yard they all mom theirs, if I paint the fence they paint theirs. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we are considered to be the elders of the neighborhood.
All in all just consider your home as an investment and treated as you would any other major investment. Don’t worry about the tax appraisals if you want to appeal it by all means go for it because it won’t affect the selling price.
Ours tripled :/ and our insurance has skyrocketed.
So did mine. That is one of the drawbacks.
Another problem, although to a much lesser extent, but it is a kind of a kick in the butt. If the tax assessors office depreciates the value of your home, true you pay less taxes, but it also means you can deduct less taxes off your 1040, resulting in less money you will be getting back from the Fed. There are always buyers and sellers, even when mortgage rates were at 15%. Buyers want to pay as little as possible, and sellers want to sell for more than its worth. But unlike other investments, your homes can take days, weeks, months to sell, even in hot real estate markets.
I once started to buy some ocean front property (60 acres) down in Mexico close to Cancun, but then I thought better of it when I spoke with some American property owners down there who informed me that the Mexican government could take your land anytime they so desired for any reason they so desired without any recourse what so ever.
I know in certain situations the same holds true in America, but not without recourse. As far as the tax issues go if you are savvy enough you can make up any differences by how you apply your knowledge. For instance if you don’t claim any dependents at work you pay in more throughout the year and pick up your dependents when you file a return, but instead of having to pay at income tax time you get a refund.
As for deductions in regard to your home you have to reach a certain amount of itemized deductions before you can include your home as a deduction in the first place.
Over a 30 year period my grandfather owned 67 rental properties and when he passed away my grandmother sold each one in a matter of months.
Percentage rates can have an effect on the selling time or buying of a house, but what can have even more of an overall effect is when the owners jack up liens/loans/refinancing against a property making it cost more in the financing than what it’s worth in the first place. Something the seller wants to get out from under and a buyers worst nightmare.
They didn’t have the new tax info up for our street yet, so no checking on the neighbors yet. They have revamped the site though and I was able to look at the last 7 or so years of appraisal histories for my block, which was very informative.
The year we bought the house, it was valued the highest it had ever been EVER (which was still low really). Then our first year in it, the value shot WAY up and stayed the same the next year. This year it went down, but not lower than when we bought, and I think it’s more of a “correction” for whatever the hell they thought when they raised all the values in this area by so much. I don’t know what they were thinking when they did that. Not like the neighborhood had changed at all (for the better or worse). Someone must have had a brain fart.
Not really worried about it. Not planning to sell anytime soon, and one of the major things we looked at when we picked it was location, location, location. They say some many millions more people will be moving here in the next five or so years, and we have a nice, older neighborhood which is very central with instant access to major highways and close to major employers. Eventually the same thing that happened in our old neighborhood … the influx of transplanted yuppies (which priced us right out of staying in our old neighborhood) … will happen here as well. In the meantime, we get to live in a house surrounded by crazy, entertaining neighbors on a quiet street and not in a cramped, aging and ugly apartment surrounded by drug dealers.
Oh and we don’t have anywhere near enough deductions to itemize and get any sort of break for our property taxes. I sort of see that as a good thing though. Our taxes are complicated enough as it is.
Orb you crack me up, you are one very funny person. The deduction thing. Let me ask you a question. Do you know, know any friends who would know a H&R Block person, any tax type preparer, who would look over your tax situation for free, maybe you could make them a cake for their trouble. I only say this as there are a multitude of deductions a number of us over look, and we all know the if you pay to much in tax the you will not be receiving any letters from the IRS instructing you that you forgot to take this or that deduction.