Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Rant: Home Prices Drop, My Assessment Soars
My proposed property assessment for 2009 is about $120,000 over what my 2008 assessment is. Given that average Washington home prices have fallen 10.9% since last January, I think my tax assessor's a bit optimistic about my property's appreciation (don't get me wrong, I would be thrilled to know that my house is worth 20 percent more today than it was last year -- keep it coming if that's the reality!). I've appealed this proposed assessment and will report back on my success (or lack thereof).
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4 comments:
You may not have a whole lot of luck. According to the Post, housing prices in the District were up 7% last year. You're figure was from the entire Metro region. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/realestate/features/2008/housing-outlook/property-values/dc.html
Mine stayed the same. But when it rose, I filed a protest and they granted it without any argument. The hearing was done on the phone. I did not argue about anything except my assessment relative to my neighbors'. CHeck out their assessments and if they are out of line with yours, file an equal protection protest. It involves minimal work.
DC is just plain greedy for property taxes, it is like a heroin addict, sucking the life out of citizens and making us do all the work to extricate ourselves.
DUMP DC AND GET OUT TOWN. IT REALLY SUCKS TO LIVE HERE.
DC is a great city, and is reasonable too. If you submit an appeal with enough paperwork to support the market value of your home (since it may differ with the current assessment), the majority of the time you will get your appeal thru. Best place to get more information on this process is the DCRA website. And don't forget to make sure that your Homestead Deduction is in place too. Sometimes DC misses that nice tax credit on your yearly tax bill.
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