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A Few More Ways To Think About Your New Rockingham County Property Assessment |
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 Ahhhh! The real estate assessment for my house just went up 30 percent! No way!? Mine went up 40 percent! I heard Bob's down the street went up 55 percent! What is happening!? Below are a few more nuggets to further expand on my relatively extensive overview of the changes in assessments last week, which you can read here. So, some new thoughts... [1] Low assessments four years ago might make the increase in assessed value seem more extreme. If your assessed value four years ago was 10 to 15 percent lower than market value at that time (many seemed to be at the time), and your assessment today is truer to market value, then the apparent increase from "lower than it should have been" to "just about right" will seem larger than life. For example, if your home was worth $250K four years ago, but was assessed for $220K, and today is worth 30% more than four years ago ($250K x 1.3) then it would be worth $325K today. If your house was then assessed (last week) for its actual value of $325K you would see a 48% increase in your assessment -- but a good chunk of that would be due to the artificially low assessment four years ago. [2] If you sold your house tomorrow, would you sell it for more or less than the new assessed value? Many homeowners who have seen a large increase in their assessed value and are getting (reasonably) anxious about the possibility of a significant increase in their real estate tax bill are focusing on the change -- not the actual numbers. If your assessed value was $300K four years ago and it went up 35% to $405K, would you sell your house for $405K? Many of the folks who I have talked with about this issue quickly realize that their new assessed value may very well be on point as it relates to the increases in home prices that we have seen over the past few years. So, if you would plan to sell your home (if you were selling now) for a price around (or above) your new assessed value, then don't worry about the new assessed value being too high -- it sounds like it's not. :-) If you look at the new assessed value of your home and think there is absolutely no way in Harrisonburg that someone would way that price for your home -- next, talk to me (or your Realtor, if it's not me) to make sure you are thinking about market value in the context of the recent sales trends. If I agree (or your Realtor agrees) that the new assessed value is way out of whack with recent sales trends, then, yes, it might be worthwhile talking further with the County about the basis for your house's new assessed value. [3] Congratulations and Condolences. ;-) Both, it seems, are in order. Congratulations -- the real estate that you own is worth a good bit more than it was four years ago. You might not have realized it, so this might be both a *CONGRATS* and a *SURPRISE* all in one. Condolences -- yes, because your property is worth more now, your real estate tax bill is going to increase. It probably won't increase by as much as is outlined on your notice of reassessment, but it will increase. My condolences as it relates to that increase in your monthly housing costs. That's all for now. Keep passing on your questions or thoughts about these new assessments as they come to you -- or call the Rockingham County Reassessment Office at 540-564-5079. :-) Recent Articles:
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Scott Rogers
Funkhouser Real
Estate Group
540-578-0102
scott@funkhousergroup.com
Licensed in the
Commonwealth of Virginia
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