Tax Assessments
I noticed something when I took a look at the DC Real Estate Tax Assessment database. It is pretty much a given that the city will assess properties to be worth more than they were last year, so that, I expected. Yet when I took a look at the "Preliminary Assessment Roll" which breaks down the property values into land, improvements, and the total value I noticed a big change from the current value and the proposed value. DC has decided to pump up the land value.Sample Assessment:
| What is assessed | Current Value | Proposed New Value (2007) | |
| Land | $88,150 | $259,920 | |
| Improvements | $105,910 | $122,200 | |
| Total Value | $194,060 | $382,120 | |
| Taxable Assessment: | $194,060 | $382,120 |
The above table I swiped from the database to show how the land value was increased. So the 2007 assessment will make the fact that one house is a rehabbed jewel and the crack house next door irrelevant because the land (provided they are similar plots) is worth the same.
Discuss.
posted by Mari @ 26.1.07
2 Comments:
Actually, this change started happening last year. I know because I fought my 2006 assessment and spent about two months analyzing the assessment database. I also read through the materials regarding the assessment process. I think the assessed value of vacant land may have been driven up by recent purchases of certain lots, where the land, sans house, was more valuable because it permitted larger construction.
This type of assessment can also throw off values block to block. For instance, my property has no front yard and is located on a street with numerous vacant properties, but the land value was assessed at the same level as the cute rows of townhouses on the block over. I won my appeal, but my initial assessment was more than $100,000 above the price I had paid for my house two week earlier (the official assessment date was two weeks after I closed on my house). I spent about two months compiling spreadsheets, reading assessment reports and compiling photographs.
Land- dirt stuff stands on
Improvements- stuff standing on dirt. It could be a designed palace or a crack-shack. When the city decides that the stuff sitting on the dirt plays less of a factor in figuring your taxes, it adds weight to the phrase "location, location, location."
Yeah, it does stick it to the abandoned and vacant landlords without having to judge how worthless the "improvement" (ie hulking shell) is. But I sense that in the long run it will bite everyone in the butt.
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