Property Tax Bill
Posted by Mike Sylvester - 7/21/09 @ 6:41 pm - Filed Under Featured, Local Politics
I received my residential property tax bill and I will have to appeal it; again…
Back in March of 2007 I hired a local appraiser for $250 to provide a written appraisal of my house (and land). That appraisal showed that my house was worth $211,000. This was significantly lower than the counties assessment and during the appeal process the county lowered my assessed value to $210,100 (I still have no idea why they lowered it to $900 less than the appraisal amount).
Per the county my land and house were assessed at:
- $210,100 in 2007 after my appeal
- $211,700 in 2008
- $219,600 in 2009
The property taxes that we pay this year are assessed for calendar year 2008.
I doubt that the value of my house increased from 2007 to 2008 either; however, the increase was small enough to where it did not make sense to appeal it.
We are in the middle of the worst decline in housing prices in decades and somehow the Allen County Assessor feels that my house has increased in value. I have one acre of land and it has an assessed value of $51,200. This number has not changed by a penny over the last three years. In 2008 my house was assessed at $160,500 and in 2009 the assessment increased by 4.922% to $168,400.
So in summary during the worst slump in the housing market in decades the assessed value of my house increased by 4.922% in 2008.
There is absolutely no way on this planet that my house has increased in value in the current housing slump.
Note that I have made no home improvements or expansions to my house of any kind…
Last year I actually paid $2,453.80 in property taxes. This year the County is telling me to pay $3,048.52. This is an increase of 24.24%.
I will likely go and hire an appraiser to appraise my house again. Even if it costs me $300 to get an appraisal I imagine the appraisal will at most show my property value to be $211,000. I just do not believe that my property has increased in value at all since the last appraisal I had done in March of 2007. In fact; I imagine the value of my house has decreased. My tax rate is 3.1807% of the net assessed value of my property. If I appeal and if the Assessor lowers my house value to $211,000 this will save me $273.54 in property taxes this year alone.
It is my understanding that the County has divided Allen County into many smaller subdivisions and that each year they increase (or supposedly decrease) the assessed values by an increment based on home sales prices in each specific region. So by appealing my property taxes I feel that I am lowering the base they will use to assess my house next year; hence I am willing to invest the money to get a written appraisal again.
I just do not believe that my house has appreciated in value.
Have any of you received your assessment?
Mike Sylvester
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31 Responses to “Property Tax Bill”
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This just shows they have no intention of abiding by the new circuit breaker law. If they want more money, they’ll just increase the value of your poroperty without justification.
The best way to stop this would be to require them to purchase your property at their stated value if you so chose. This should not cost them anything because, per their own definition, if they put that house on the market it would be purchased at the amount they stated it is worth. If it sold for less, then their loss is the fine they should have to pay for trying to take advantage of the property owner.
my tax bill for the last three years:
2007- $1838
2008- $828
2009- $1724
My appraised value-
2007- 132,400
2008- 107,300
2009- 136,000
In the one year you lived there some things in your home became worth a bit less. For example, the life span of a roof drops by ~5% a year. Carpet does lasts about 10 to 15 years and it needs to be replaced. The same with kitchen cabinets and bathrooms. The replacement cost is different from the selling price because windows, roofs, heating and AC units, carpet and what I consider consumables must be replaced over time. Who would pay building price for a home when it is 20 years old with the original windows, carpets, kitchen cabinets, heating and AC unit.
Would it be difficult to create a program to more accurately estimate the value of a home, no? I have a program I wrote 15 years ago that starts with new construction costs and depreciates the “consumbles” over time. Was it recently painted, new carpet, new roof, etc.
The problem is the circuit breaker does little if the assessor simple inflates the house assessment. One more thing, the sales tax went from 6% to 7%. How much more are we all paying in sales taxes? Are you paying a combined (sales and property tax) that is higher than before?
The Fort Wayne airport is a joke. The tax rate increased by 50%. We all know why.
The Allen County Library costs me $141 a year. The renovation added to my bill and I have yet to see an improvement.
Now we have the City of Fort Wayne willing to pay up to 5% more for vendors who are local in the hope that it benefits the local economy. Early analysis shows this produces insufficient tax revenue to pay the 5% premium.
My assessment increased by 10%, which makes no sense. You can look at selling prices of “comparables” but houses in my neighborhood are all different. There’s really no way to know what your house is worth until it’s sold. Then you can ask for a refund.
My appraisals(for house without land) and taxes are as follows;
2007-172,900 $2876
2008-186,700 $1870
2009-191,200 $2453
This is for a 90+ year old house in a 100 year old neighborhood.
For a vacant adjacent lot the appraisals were;
2007-15,100
2008-13400
2009-18900
None of this makes any sense so I will join the 1000s of others who will appeal !!
Remember that your assessment in 2009 is based on sales in 2006 and 2007. That is the system that the state has assessors using. So although your house is most likely worth a bit less than it was last year, that fact is not included in your 2009 assessment. It WILL be included in your 2011 assessment.
Karen is right.
The new “market-based” assessments use data from 2 years prior to the actual assessment.
Also, your tax bill will go up this year compared to last but I would think nearly everyone would be paying less than they did 2 years ago. The state legislature increased your exemptions during an election year to make you think what they did was better than what it really was.
Phil,
You’re right that the assessor could just inflate values to avoid the cap but there are a couple of problems with that.
1) At some point that’s just not sustainable. They will have so many appeals it would swamp the office.
2) There would have to be some conspiracy between the assessor and the rest of the taxing units as the assessor simply tells them how much money they have but doesn’t set their budgets.
3) (probably obvious) This would be illegal and any assessor conspiring to do this would probably be thrown in jail
Karen,
What you say is true; however, it is absurd that the state does it that way. The bills we just received are payable in 2009 for your 2008 taxes.
If you appeal your taxes they have to defend their assessment based on 2008 values…
I will definately appeal the assessment and I am relatively certain I will win; again.
I expect thousands of appeals and I expect that most of the appeals will result in lower assessments.
It is absurd to use 2006 and 2007 sales for 2008 assessments…
Mike
i’m sure they bank on the majority who won’t appeal and just pay the bill.
Jeff,
I recall that when a huge number of citizens were shut out of City Council one night in 2007, you did not accept the excuse by Sandy Kennedy that this was just a coincidence. I believe that at the time you stated that this was purposely done to insulate the Council from hearing from people who disagreed with their position on H.S.
But Sandy Kennedy is not a member of the Council, so she had nothing to gain or lose by letting people in. And the members of Council who were feeling the heat had no power to influence her decision. After all, Kennedy is an elected (not appointed) official and is thus immune to the whims of the Council. Or do you think there was a “conspiracy” between the Clerk and the Council?
You can also look at the fact that at least three successive Allen County Sheriff’s have allowed an open-air drug market to be conducted right in the heart of their County. They did this because they “respect the jurisdictional boundaries of FWPD,” even though that organization obviously was not getting the job done. Was this a “conspiracy” also?
I think the bulk of the evidence reveals that most elected officials feel a closer affinity to their fellow politicos than they do for the average citizen. I don’t think that two persons necessarily have to sit down together and explicitly state the terms of their arrangement in order to sympathize and react to the other’s predicament.
Call it a conspiracy if you like, but I think the burden is upon Blosser to show how assessed home values increased during a declining housing market. Karen’s statement only explains why it did not decrease and will not do so for a couple years. But there is no logical explanation for an increase unless perhaps Mike sold his house recently for a higher value but somehow forgot about it.
And by the way, from the sound of this thread this may be the year that the Assessor gets swamped with appeals.
@ William Larsen:
I know it’s a bit off topic, but I took offense to this…”The Allen County Library costs me $141 a year. The renovation added to my bill and I have yet to see an improvement.”
Are you really complaining that you have to pay $141 for one of the top library systems in the nation? If you borrow at least 10 books a year from the library then that is paying for itself, I think our family hit’s that number in just about a week (maybe even a little quicker).
Would you rather we spend less on libraries and more on jails? Granted, the new library probably was overdone - it could’ve been a little less glamorous - but how can you complain about paying the same rate as your monthly cable bill a year for a wonderful library system?
If you really have that much of a problem paying it - just let me know and I’ll send you a check for $141 out of my huge $400 a month paycheck because I actually appreciate the outstanding service the ACPL provides to Allen County.
Mike,
The assessor doesn’t do full door-to-door assessments every year so they have to have some way to adjust the assessments. Using the last two years worth of data seems reasonable to me as there may not be enough sales data in the assessment year to get a statistically relevant sample.
I’m not saying it’s ideal, but I understand why they are doing it that way.
Phil,
I believe at the time I felt like the decision to hold the meeting in the small commissioners’ meeting room was incompetent but not a conspiracy.
I don’t disagree that it’s up to the assessor (not Blosser, who is the auditor) to show why Mike’s assessment went up. In an ideal situation Mike should be able to appeal and they should have sales data to show him why this happened.
Neil Kelty,
Your comment was addressed to Mr. Larsen; however, I would like to chime in.
My current tax bill payable in 2009 shows I will pay $201.15 to the Allen County Public Library.
I personally think we have an very good library system; however, I do not think it should be funded by property taxes.
Instead I think it should be paid for by user fees paid by those who use the library.
My wife and both kids love the library and they use it a lot. There is no doubt in my mind that my family would pay a user fee of $200 a year to use the library system.
Mike Sylvester
Jeff,
Of course they don’t do full door-to-door assessments very often. Of course they have to have another method of ascertaining updated values.
That being said; my property did NOT go up in value last year and this property tax bill is for 2008; therefore, it should reflect the fact that the housing market in this area dropped in 2008.
I do not think it is reasonable to use 2006 and 2007 data; however, I think it would be reasonable to use 2008 data. Since they just sent out the assessments there is no good reason why they should not be able to use the 2008 data. This is the age of computer and information afterall.
Mike
Mike:
While my family would be more than willing to pay a $200 user fee, there’s an awful lot of low income families that would probably not pay the $200 for the library - so we’d end up exempting those around the poverty level and bumping up your fee to $300.
The other problem with that idea is that it’s not going to help develop the people who need the library the most. Instead of getting them into the libraries, reading books, and expanding their worlds we’ll put them on the streets where they can deal drugs and put a bigger burden on our police force.
Is it a mini-version of welfare of providing things to the poor, it most certainly is - but I’d rather we pay in property taxes than in user fees. The library system in Allen County will always be something I’d be willing to subsidize.
Neil,
I see no reason to make user fees based on ability to pay; that is socialist.
Libraries are an elective; they are something people can choose to use or choose not to use.
I think libraries should be paid for by those who use them.
I think property tax should only be used to fund public safety items.
Mike
Neil,
When did someone mandate that the library was a place where you help develop people that otherwise, (as you put it) would be on the streets where they can deal drugs and put a bigger burden on our police force.
You can’t seriously believe that this takes place at our library, or any library for that matter.
I’m with Mike. The library should be funded through user fees. The same goes for the pool at Swinney Park.
Neil wrote “Are you really complaining that you have to pay $141 for one of the top library systems in the nation? If you borrow at least 10 books a year from the library then that is paying for itself, I think our family hit’s that number in just about a week (maybe even a little quicker).”
The $81 million renovation with coffee bar and under ground parking is a waste of taxpayers money. I have not see any value added with the renovation. I am able to check out the same books, get the same service as I did prior to the renovation. So please, tell me what I paid for that is of benefit?
I do not have cable, internet or a cell phone.
I’m not arguing that the recent renovation was not overdone - I think it very well was over done. The building is a Taj Majal - not sure we needed a Taj Majal - but we got one.
You’re paying something like $0.40 a day for the use of the library - is that really breaking that bank?
I don’t use it. I’e been there twice since it reopened. Once to talk to Krull about a project and the other for a debate. The place was basically empty. If Krull was a visionary, he would have spent money digitizing and selling online the genealogy records.
Wait, let me clarify something here to see if I am misunderstanding it - Is this $141 a year to operate the library system or am I wrong and it is JUST for the renovation?
There appears to be a fair amount of confusion about the ACPL-let me try to clarify some of the issues.
1. The annnual tax levy covers all types of costs for the library including servicing the bonds which paid for the renovations/expansion as well as ongoing operating costs.(a substantial amount of support comes from the Foundation and gifts as well)
2. The 81mm cost covered the renovation of both the downtown and most of the branches of the library scattered thru the County.
3.Most thinking people would consider education and a knowledge of history(books,libraries are a primary source)the foundation of a civilized world.
4. For those who say the library is empty you must be going there at odd times-every time I am there the children’s section is full of kids reading real books(which they probably don’t have at home),adults working on or waiting to get access to the many computers ,young people listening to or checking out music and videos,and groups of all kinds meeting in the meeting rooms or attending functions in the auditorium.
5. The ACPL is a leader in it’s size class for the volume of materials circulated(that means how much people use it)and is considered one of the top 3 genealogy centers in the nation.
6 With support from the Foundation and many private gifts the genealogy collection is all being digitized(as well as the new materials from the Lincoln Museum collection).Any items which have market value are being sold by subscription /leased/etc. now and many more will be in the future.
7. After several years of involvement with the ACPL I would attest that it is probably one of the best run,best promoted and most useful and valuable resources that Allen County has.Anyone not using it should get a tour ,learn what is available and start taking advantage of a grest thing!!
Thanks for clearing that up - and I apologize to Mike for hijacking his Property Tax post.
Bill,
Then you haven’t been paying attention. If I have one complaint about the renovation it’s that they didn’t build enough space for the computer labs.
These are full every time I am there. Go in on any given night and take a look for yourself. Now you may not think that expense is necessary but it’s certainly value added…
Jeff, When I speak of no value added, I am speaking of cost versus service. How many computers could you have purchased using the underground parking lot funds?
How many computers could you have purchased had the “great hall” waste of material and space to give the impression of “Grandier.”
I use the library a lot, but I have not see any increase in value in terms of what I use versus the cost. I do not need a parking garage to keep myself dry or from freezing. I do not melt and I have lived here since 1963.
Don’t get me wrong on the Fort Wayne Library, it is one of the best in the nation, but with taxpayers money, it has gone overboard.
Taxing authorities like the library, airport and schools build “kingdoms” using taxpayer money. They do not know what frugal or responsibility is. The larger they grow, the more they spend and they feel compelled to spend. They remind me of people who are attempting to keep up with the Jones’s. What made Fort Wayne attractive in 1963 was its low cost of living. That cost of living has risen from 80 to around 100 the last I recall.
Bill-you are certainly entitled to your opinion about value vs cost but I would definitely disagree with your conclusions. On the subject of the underground parking-this was a conscious decision by the Board because it was deemed to be much safer for evening hours than surface parking. What does that tell you about our downtown area?
L. Marine, I had not heard that the decision was based on safety during evening hours. It would appear they are treating a symptom instead of the problem.
[...] previously posted about my the 2008 assessment on my house that is payable in [...]
I am appealing my property taxes again.They based my house at $70K in 2007, I appealed and got reduced to $40k,now with no improvements it’s back up to 70K, I have been trying to sell my house for $31K for 9 months and no lookers and my realtor told me $31K was on the high side. The comparables they listed were 3 very small homes nearby that were cherry picked because $ per square foot was $55 and multiplying my square foot by that number put me back at $70K. My home is a 31 y/o 3 bdr manufactured home and I’m sure there are plenty of comparables as this area(SWCentral has many manufactured homes) How is a 700 sq ft home a comparable to a 1104 sq ft 3 bdr? I am on a low fixed income(SS)and I feel it is criminal how they are cherrypicking homes that are not comparable just to get a higher tax bill. Is their job to bring in the most $ by duping homeowners or to fairly assess property?
I have a comfortabe home in neighborhood I like but assessing a home at $70K that general public won’t look at for $31K is crazy and I really feel for the older than me that don’t understand and just pay!