Property tax assessment check
Is your home over-assessed?
Assessment notices are landing, and many went up. Put the assessor's value on one side of the scale and what nearby homes actually sold for on the other. The page ranks your comparables, adjusts each to your home's size, checks the record for a size error and estimates what a lower value would save each year. Then get the case check, and the letter.
1 Your notice
The level is the share of market value your area assesses at (100 if the notice shows full market value). A rate above 20 is read as mills per $1,000.
2 Your home
The scale
What the page sees estimates
How the page weighs it
- Assessor's market value = assessed value / assessment level.
- Similarity starts at 100: minus 1.2 a percent of size difference (up to 40), half a point a year of age difference (up to 20), 2.5 a month for a sale older than 6 months (up to 30), 5 per bedroom or bathroom of difference (up to 20). 70+ strong, 45+ fair, else weak. Weak sales sit out when three fair-or-better remain.
- At your size = the sale price plus half its price per sq ft for each sq ft your home is larger (minus, if smaller) - a common rule of thumb, not an appraisal.
- What the sales say = the median of the counted sales at your size. Uneven assessment compares your assessed value per sq ft with the neighbours' median.
- Appeal = 5% or more over with 3+ sales (or 3+ neighbours) and a saving of $100+ a year. Fix the record = you measured 3%+ less than the record. Let it stand = the evidence points at or above the assessor. Otherwise borderline.
- Rules, forms and deadlines differ by county and state. Not legal, tax or appraisal advice.
3 Nearby sales
One a line: address | price | sale month | sq ft | beds | baths | year built. Units can do the sorting (1,380 sq ft, 3 bd, 2 ba). For a neighbour's assessment instead of a sale, write assessed $281,500.
The ballot
- strong match
- fair
- weak
- Llead
- Ssupport
- Xdrop
4 Case check
Metered. Weighs your evidence the way a careful residential appraiser would: which grounds hold, which comparables to lead with and which to drop, the value to ask for, what to bring and what the assessor may say back. The page checks every figure and every address against what you entered.
Take it with you
The Markdown carries the figures, the ranked comparables, the flags, both replies and the page's checks. The .csv is the ballot, ready for a spreadsheet or an exhibit.