Once home values started declining, the San Diego County tax assessor started revising downward the assessed values of properties bought during the peak era.
Many were a results of requests made by homeowners, but the assessor’s staff also revised some voluntarily. Now that it appears that the market has bottomed, are the tax-assessed values being raised?
A generous reader offered the following:
The properties that were not re-assessed downward under (the other) Prop 8 continue to creep up every year by either 2% or California CPI, whichever is lower. That’s basically every home bought prior to the bubble, and they only got a break when CCPI was negative for the first time since Prop 13 and every property got a shave.
Those that were adjusted downward under Prop 8 are re-evaluated every year and can jump up to whatever the tax assessor says they are worth until they get restored to their original assessed value plus annual increase (which they also track). When those properties get back to where they would have otherwise been but for the recession, then they increase annually like all other properties.
The Assessor says they are cautiously restoring AV on those that his office reset because they don’t want to fight appeals and in many areas they just don’t have sufficient volume of comps to justify higher AV yet.
Glad to hear that the tax assessor is ‘cautiously restoring’.
I’ve dealt with various county Assessor’s and always found them to be rational, fair and professional.
The “recapturing” ruling was one of the great travesties of law. All I can figure is that the judge feared never getting a pay raise again if the state was deprived of all that revenue.
I’ve dealt with various county Assessor’s and always found them to be rational, fair and professional.
Agreed.
I was at the front desk in the SD office not long ago, and a taxpayer was pleading her case why her assessed value should be lowered.
The clerk fired up her desktop computer, logged right into our Sandicor MLS and pulled comps just like a seasoned realtor.
She was very professional about it, and made a point that the comps being presented weren’t as good as the ones found on the MLS.
It was an impressive display of top service delivered by a county employee.
Mortgage rates leaped to new 2-Yr highs today, after strong economic data increased the chances that tomorrow’s all-important jobs report would be similarly strong.
The rate with the most efficient combination of upfront cost and monthly payment for ideal scenarios moved up to 4.875% for Conventional 30yr Fixed loans on average–roughly an entire eighth of a point in a single day.
While some some lenders remain at 4.75%, others are closer to 5.0%–a rate that will be more prevalent if tomorrow’s data is strong.
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/consumer_rates/323319.aspx
Jim, rates at my credit union today: 3.625%/15-year fixed and 4.625%/30-year fixed. When I look at my 4% fixed/30-year from November, 2010, well, I sleep very well.
That said, I still think anything under 6% is terrific. I remember getting a mortgage on our (first) home we built in Hawaii (1988) and it was a staggering 10 1/2%. We signed on that day and it went to 11% the very next day. <*Gulp*
It’s not the absolute rate that will spook the market, but rather the velocity at which it is increasing.