I just received a revised property assessment - and it went up by 40% !! All during a period where the market values are down... :uhh: Can anyone reccommend some resources that would be helpful in disputing the increase?

Thanks for any feedback -

God bless CT. i wish i could be of help but i just bought a year ago so i'm new to the game. i'm a little worried b/c i've been hearing the same from some other neighboring towns.

Man, I'm afraid to see what our new taxes are going to be. We jsut bought a little over a year ago as well. Our property taxes were already OUTRAGEOUS & the town sent the updated, reassessed value of our house....it went up by quite a bit, and the letter said not to calculate against the current mill rate because the new mill rate will be different. I don't even want to know what the freaking taxes are going to be this year.

Pretty convenient that they are reassessing our homes now when the market is fighting and the values are still high, huh?

That's fairly normal in my part of Texas, which is on Lake Conroe in Montgomery County. In Texas, there is a procedure to contest. Follow the procedure and contest it. Bring evidence that the market is down, like news stories, real estate ads, rental properties etc.

You cannot get ahead in this state... I have another $3,500 in annual car tax between the the three cars and two bikes. This is my first year homeownership too. I am hoping I'll get something back from my tax return w/having the mortgage now.

One of the main reasons we moved here from SoCal was to buy a home (and figured that the cost of living would go down at least a little). Other than the actual home prices, it's at least as expensive to live here….and we have to pay taxes on our friggin cars in CT! And it was 2 degrees when I woke up this morning! I miss living on the beach!!

Here's some tips on fighting a property tax increase:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Taxes/Cutyourtaxes/P57816.asp

It's basically going to come down to when they assessed comps that led to your increase. If your market has recently gone down, and the comps they used were before the dive, then you can have a hearing with the assesor to show the error.

You can also see if they incorrectly comped your house to others that are superior to yours and therefore making an unfair comparison. It will take a bit of leg work and might end up resulting in no change, but it's worth a shot.

My last property tax check came out to approx 13k, that's not including the three rental properties we have in So Cal.

greenspan, bush, & cheney are all monkeys who messed up our economy.

greenspan, bush, & cheney are all monkeys who messed up our economy.

LOL
Putting greenspan in the same league with bush and cheney shows just how much thought you put into that.

Greenspan was one of the best things to happen to this country, in terms of the economy, ever.

Bush and Cheney don't set your property tax, your local government does. They may be doing there best to fubar our national economy but alas, they have no power over how much your local tax man wants to pull from your pockets.


Next?

Greenspan was responsible for creating the housing bubble, which will go down in history as one of the most colossal blunders the federal reserve has ever made. Of course the economy was good (for a while), that's what happens when you turn on the cheap money spigots and double the money supply in less than 10 years.

You're right Baron, greenspan caused the housing bubble. He made people who couldnt afford houses sign up for interest only ARM's. He taught brokers how to fudge numbers to make borrows look better on paper and showed banking institutions how to turn a blind eye to questionable lending.

This is what he said in 2004 If lenders, including community bankers, continue their prudent lending practices, household financial conditions should be all the more likely to weather future challenges," he concluded

Did the practice prudent lending from that point on, no. That would be the start of the "give anyone with a pulse a mortgage" era.

His policy on interests rates helped stave off deflations and recessions, but you're right, he's the devil.

We are such a country of cry babies. Nothing is ever your own fault, it's always someone else's.

the fed reserve monkey sets interest rates and defines monetary policy. the other 2 monkeys in the executive branch set economic policy by the type of legislation and the overall stupid way they run things. toss in a deaf, dumb, and blind monkey senate and a monkey congress that has no balls. and, u get the f'd up situation we got, which is no oversight into the banking industry whatsoever, skyrocketing gas prices, record-breaking oil co profits, trillions of dollars of debt cuz of the iraq war, and a collapsing housing bubble that's no good for anyone.

they are all monkeys.

But, haven't you always wanted a monkey?

the curious george movie is about as much monkey i can handle.

:lol:

Thanks for the info laythor... I've set up an appt. to contest near month end.

I completely support the stop blaiming everyone else statement. If people way over extend themselves with 0% cars and ARM mortgages and then surprise taxes went up. as the commmercial says DUH. People need to smarten up on these things and not sign up for mortgages that are heads I win/tails you now pay 10%. I all comes down to be responsible for your own choices!

PS. Any and all grammar or spelling mistakes are not my fault, its Microsofts fault!

I completely support the stop blaiming everyone else statement. If people way over extend themselves with 0% cars and ARM mortgages and then surprise taxes went up. as the commmercial says DUH. People need to smarten up on these things and not sign up for mortgages that are heads I win/tails you now pay 10%. I all comes down to be responsible for your own choices!

PS. Any and all grammar or spelling mistakes are not my fault, its Microsofts fault!

I am going to give you the benefit of a doubt and assume that your comment is not directed toward me - this has nothing to do with over extending myself. I took out a 30 year fixed rate loan and can easily afford my cars. But a 40% assessment hike is ridiculous and I made a comment of how much the city is soaking me for between the house and the cars.

You are correct; it is not aimed at you at all. It is aimed at the people that make bad financial decisions and want to blame other people for it. On the other hand the people selling reverse mortgages, ARMS and 100% equity loans with hidden clauses that allow them to pillage people are despicable. Sorry for any confusion. Most of us here couldn't exist without being finacially sound with what we have to pay in gas and tire costs for our RX-8s

Fitz75 you're the opposite of what racer was talking about. You're proactively looking to deal with a situation, not sitting back and letting it happen.