Foreclosures are Impacting on Valuations
For those living close to foreclosed houses it is a nightmare. For those who have bought foreclosed houses it is also a nightmare. Sanjeev Rathore is one of the purchasers. He complains that his home in the suburbs of Omaha that he had bought from a bank during a foreclosure sale in 2009 October had all the hallmarks of foreclosure blight – broken shingles, slashed gutters and smashed tiles.
Sanjeev is 34 years old. He bought this fixer upper located in the Mission Hill locality. He together with his wife Bhawana paid for it $189,000 – it being much less than the other houses in the locality. But currently the couple is protesting that the tax valuation slapped on it, $247,600, by the office of Douglas County Assessor, is not fair.
Rathore bemoaned that when in the beginning the bank stated the assessed valuation none came forward to bid. “So what does that say about the assessed value? It doesn’t speak to the market.”
He is not the only one protesting. As the housing market continues to be weak the county boards would have to face more protests all over Nebraska. The owners of properties can challenge their valuation till 30th June. If they have their way then the house owners might be able to bring down the tax on property. If the valuation of the Rathores dropped to the price they paid for it they would be able to save from taxes next year $1,200, presuming that the rate of taxes do not alter.
There is no surety that protesting against valuation assessment will win even if the owners are armed with the recent purchase papers and a list of all the flaws in the house. In 2009, 56% of the protestors in Douglas County managed to get their assessment amount change. In Sarpy 56% were successful.
The assessors in the county said they considered the problems of the housing market when making the fresh valuations last spring. In both the counties the assessors reduced more than they had increased this year of 2010.
A review by World Herald indicated that in May out of every four homes recently sold in the Douglas and Sarpy counties the assessment was on the higher side. It includes properties whose reduced valuation was more than the sale value. The Chief Deputy Assessor of Douglas County, Barry Couch, commented that the market belonged to the buyers.
Comments
For each reassessment the value is estimated by the local assessor as of a specific “effective date” that considers sales studied for a specific timeframe. To challenge the assessment you want comparable sale as close to the effective date as possible (say January 1, 2010) so don’t get comps through May 2010, they just might be ignored.
And be sure to have some sales during the period studied by the assessor. If the assessor has an effective date for assessments of January 1, 2010 (hypothetical), he or she may have studied sales through September 30, 2009, in order to complete their work and send assessment notices out on time. The reason sales after there study period may be ignored is the fact that assessors are more concerned about assessment uniformity than they are about estimate market value. If all residential property assessments for 2010 after considering sales though September 30, 2009, it’s uniform (and fair) that he consider that same time frame when reviewing your assessment on appeal. This time delay has always been present, however, it’s not noticed until market values head downward. The real estate tax rate applies to all properties uniformly so assessment must be uniform to fairly distribute the tax burden.