| Author |
Message |
    
Tomr
| | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 10:02 am: |     |
Would a few of my neighbors like to share the garage assessment values given to them by Certified Valuations?
After receiving my property record card, I was somewhat surpeised to learn that I own the fourth highest valued home on my block. Particularly surprising in light of the fact that mine may be the only home on the block without a garage, while most nearby homes have two car garages.
I'm just trying to figure out if I should go through with my planned appeal, or maybe build a garage.
Information on garrage asssessments in the AC23 VCS designated neighborhood (Harvard, Tuscan Park Avenue according to Certified) would be particularly appreciated.
Thanks,
TomR. |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 11:00 am: | |
I'm in AC15, but:
my two-car garage, attached is 418 sq. ft * $4.88 + 810 * 1.24 * 1.00 = 3534. Then multiply it by 2.98, and then depreciation. It comes out to be less than $10K. |
Townie
| | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 12:33 pm: | |
TomR,
I'm out of your area, so my garage assessment doesn't mean much ($20K), but this might help your thinking: When I was househunting in Maplewood six years ago, houses that didn't have garages routinely had asking prices of about $10-20K less, and realtors confirmed to me the absence of a garage reduced the selling price of a house. It's funny, because in my neighborhood, almost no one pulls their cars into their unattached garages anyway, even people with automatic doors.
They're useless.
Seems to me if you build a garage now, with the ready-update software that the assessor now has, it will only raise your assessment (unless you have a phantom garage listed on your property card).
As to whether you should appeal, I would say it depends on whether you believe you could sell your house today for its assessment price or, if not, whether the time you'll spend appealing will net you a reduction in taxes that makes it worth your while. You might want to ask a professional. My concern would be that if I appealed now and got a marginal reduction in my assessment, it would be locked in for three years. But if in the next two years the RE market takes a plunge, I could still end up with a relatively high assessment. So I might want to wait and appeal next year.
BUT: I would only make such decisions based on the advice of a professional. So please don't take my advice as that.
kathleen |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 1:31 pm: | |
Kathleen -- why don't your neighbors use their garages? Almost everyone in my neighborhood uses theirs.
Also, the way the law is written, is that the appeal is not locked in for 3 years if there would be a substantial change in the assessment. If you had a $400K house, appealed and it went to $350K, if the tax assessor then noticed market prices going up and houses comparable to yours went up to $450K, he could change your assessment. On the other hand, if it went down considerably, he could change the assessment again. I'm not sure if "substantial" is objective or subjective. If he couldn't change an assessment for 3 years, we would have inequities all over again.
I posted this information on another thread near the end of last week if you'd like to search for it. Someone else pointed me to the Freeze Act, and I did an internet search on it. |
Townie
| | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 2:10 pm: | |
Njjoseph,
Thanks for the elaboration on the 3-year rule. More good reasons why Tomr should not listen to me. :-0
I think my neighbors don't use their garages because many were built before the 20s, and still have double doors (like barn doors) that aren't all that easy to deal with. Also, the garages are at least 20 paces from the back door to the house, so if you are unloading groceries or kids, it's easier just to pull in as far as the kitchen door, especially in bad weather. I guess most of us aren't too worried about car theft (we have car alarms and ignition locks). If I were a car thief, I'd look for easier pickings than backing down these narrow driveways in the dark. Also, my garage is currently owned by a raccoon, whom I'd rather not run into in the evenings!
Bottom line, though? We're lazy! Too far to walk. ;-{
kathleen |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 2:15 pm: | |
Kathleen, those doors are quite charming, but alas not so practical for today's lifestyles.
I must say I'm tempted to leave the car in the driveway when I'm in-and-out several times a day, but there are too many posts on this board lately regarding midday car theft. Since I have a door opener, it's not that inconvenient.
I'm surprised you didn't know about the Freeze Act -- maybe you were on vacation last week and were bombarded with too many posts? :-) |
Townie
| | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 2:19 pm: | |
No, Njj, I think there is just a limit to how much information about taxes my brain can handle, especially this time of year. I'm leaving space for daffodils to bloom. ;-]
kathleen |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 2:27 pm: | |
My crocuses are up, and nearing the end of their blooming season. The daffs are pushing up, as are the tulips, hyacinths and irises.
Spring planting is only a few short weeks away....I'm looking forward to my first garden since I lived at home.
O.K. I think we're on to other topics.... |
Townie
| | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2001 - 2:45 pm: | |
Enjoy your garden! And your garage!
k. |
Tomr
| | Posted on Saturday, March 17, 2001 - 11:43 am: | |
Townie,
Could you provide similar information to that provided by Njjoseph, i.e., square footage and the the multipliers used by Cerified? Even though from a different neighborhood, the numbers will help me decide whether to appeal and/or build.
As for your comments on an appeal, my quandry is how did my valuation get so high compared to my neighbors when they all have garages, mostly two car variety, and many have finished basements and/or attics, of which I have neither.
Anyone out there from AC23 (Harvard, Tuscan, Park Avenue) with information on their garage valuations?
Njjoseph, are you going to go forward with the dekblock project? |
Joancrystal
| | Posted on Sunday, March 18, 2001 - 2:50 pm: | |
TomR:
I don't live in your neighborhood according to Certified but I will provide what information I can anyway. My house has a one car garage which is attached to the house. Certified's calculations read as follows: 280 x 4.880 + 810 x 1.39 x 1.00 = 3025. This is a very small figure compared to value of my property as a whole and the least of my tax worries.
From what I can see, whether or not you have a gargare and the size of that garage have very little impact on your overall real property assessment. There must be other reasons such as age/condition of your property, size of the house, recent improvements, building materials, relative house and lot size vis a vis the rest of your block, etc. that resulted in your relatively high real property valuation.
If you want the safety and convenience of having a garage, by all means build one but don't let the revaluation be a driving factor in your decision. |
Njjoseph
| | Posted on Monday, March 19, 2001 - 8:50 am: | |
TomR -- what project do you mean? |
Tomr
| | Posted on Monday, March 19, 2001 - 10:07 am: | |
Njjoseph,
Sorry, it wasn't you I was thinking of. I relied upon my memory rather than checking a prior thread regarding building a deck.
TomR |
Chip
| | Posted on Monday, March 19, 2001 - 10:39 pm: | |
I wasn't aware that if we appealed this year we couldn't appeal next year when values are predicted to go down. Is this true? |
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