Real estate poll: Are you appealing your assessment?
American homeowners were asked in a new BIGresearch poll whether they're appealing to have their property taxes lowered. About one-quarter say they either plan to or already have. Another one-quarter haven't decided.
So there's a lot of tax angst out there. But what about here, specifically?
On the one hand, Maryland sent out notices this week to the one-third of homeowners who were just reassessed for tax purposes, and 95 percent of them have lower valuations now than they did three years ago. Average drop: 22 percent. On the other hand, two-thirds of homeowners were last assessed a year or two ago, and prices have continued to fall since.
Satisfy my curiosity: Do you plan to appeal your assessment? (You can play along if you're not in Maryland, too -- just make sure you choose the appropriate category.)
Once average assessed values began to fall in Maryland, so did the number of people contesting those new valuations. But out-of-cycle appeals -- the petitions mailed in by owners who weren't just reassessed -- have skyrocketed:
Source: Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. First four years of petition figures are estimates.
This year, the number of "petitions for review" -- the out-of-cycle appeals -- outnumbered the "I don't like my new assessment" appeals for the first time.
UPDATE: Wondering what your assessed value actually is? Look it up here.
Categories: Polls, Property taxes
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Comments
I'd appeal but it appears the assessment on my Baltimore City home has decreased.
Posted by: Paul | December 29, 2010 11:04 AM
We are purchasing a house in January. The last assessment was about $50K more than the sales price and appraised value. I also believe the annual property taxes are a little higher than they should be. So I am going to try to figure out the Appeal Upon Purchase situation to hopefully get the taxes lowered a little.
Posted by: SZ | December 29, 2010 11:25 AM
SZ, this post has some resources that might help: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/realestate/blog/2010/03/no_need_for_buyers_to_wait_to_appeal_tax_assessment.html
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | December 29, 2010 11:35 AM
Thanks for the info Jamie. I'll try to remember to let you know the outcome. I checked again and the last assessment was actually more like $70K more than our purchase price and appraised value.
Posted by: SZ | December 30, 2010 11:41 AM
If you're wondering whether you should appeal your Maryland property taxes you can find out for free if you're overassessed by typing in your home address here: www.ValueAppeal.com
Posted by: Charlie Walsh | December 30, 2010 11:52 AM
Looks like the new assessment data isn't there yet, Charlie.
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | December 30, 2010 11:55 AM
We have the data for the 2/3 of out of cycle homeowners, but not the 1/3 who's appeal window opens at the beginning of 2011.
For the 2/3 of homeowners who are out of cycle the deadline for filing an appeal is December 31st. By our calculations, 59% of those homeowners are eligible if they act before the end of the year.
Posted by: Charlie Walsh | December 30, 2010 12:08 PM