Lakeshore is a plus - if you look at tax-assessed valuations you will see how your neighbors' shoreline and homes compare with yours for tax purposes. Your county assessor can break out the mill rates - the percentages used to determine the various county services, etc used by people in your area - and how those affect your particular piece of property. We are seeing that many counties which have expanded fairly rapidly over the last few years have raised the land value even when the structure value has stayed the same or declined. Assessed value is for tax purposes; appraised value usually means a value determined by an independent licensed appraiser for market or lending purposes. These values may be similar or far apart. If you want to challenge the assessed value and the taxes, your county will have a process and procedure and tell you what is needed. Good luck! Liz

Good question! Keep this in mind: what your property is worth and what the tax office appraises are two completely different things! Unfortunately, they don't necessarily have anything to do with one another. You should also note that any given property has at least three different and legitimate values that can be assigned to it; two of which are the valueation for tax purposes and the value for marketing purposes.

In other words, you should only worry about what they appraise your property for if it seems to be too HIGH; then they could be charging more tax than they should! If it's too low, that will not affect it's actual market value or what it's "worth" or the actual so called "property value." It's only a basis for taxation that only has foundation in their world, not yours.

Hi Mink!
On the county reports I have viewed, the counties will separate out the value of the land and the value of the structure(s) on the parcel.

If you do not believe your property is valued correctly, call the county assessor for clarification.