This seems like it should be easy but it's not, you actually have to file a formal appeal with the county tax assessor's office, if the difference is completely obvious, they will have the appraiser sent out to re-evaluate your taxes.
The problem ~ The taxed assessed values are not actually determined Year to Year, but rather increase according to a predetermined schedule. Go to the county office and tell them you would like to contest the taxable amount of your home, they should be able to point you in the right direction.

Jason H. Gomes
Prudential NW Properties
cell: 503.608.8785
DesK: 503.350.7378

Hi Francis - I pulled up the property tax records for you and did a quick comp check on your home. There were 9 similar homes in your area that have sold in the past 6 months with a low sale of $210,000 and a high sale of $365,000. The average sale price out of the 9 properties is $298,426....not much less than your property tax value of $302,960 for 07/08 tax year. But - there is such a wide variety of similar homes that sold, without looking at your home to run a full analysis - it's hard to know which are the true comps.

It looks like you may have refinanced your 2nd mortgage in November - did they do an appraisal for you? If so and it came in under your tax assessed value - that should give you some leverage as it's less than 6 months old. Besides being a Realtor, I'm also a Loan Officer for Sunset Mortgage. I work with an excellent appraiser and his name is Neville Mercado.......if they didn't do an appraisal for you when you refi'd your 2nd, Neville would do an excellent job for you. His number is 503-641-4657. You can give him a call and he can do a quick comp check to see where he thinks the value may come in (and I don't believe he'd charge you anything for that) and if it looks like it would come in much lower and be worthwhile to do - it would only run you $350 for the full appraisal.

Hope that helps! Let me know if I can help with anything else.

Kelly Gebler
Real Estate Broker & Residential/Commercial Finance Specialist
Commonwealth Group & Sunset Mortgage Co.
Ph: 503-516-1637
Email: LetUsGuideYouHome@comcast.net

Francis...

email me your address and I can send you some comparable sales.

You need to look at your market value versus your assessed value. You are getting taxed on your assessed value and not on your market value.

Ideally you can get a hearing or be able to get a reduction right at the county Staff level.

Let's start by you sending me your address and than I will send you some comparables.

My email is dirkknudsen@gmail.com.

Best wishes;

Dirk Knudsen
Re/Max Hall of Fame
503-799-8383
dirkknudsen@gmail.com

It would be very easy for you to either get an appraisal, or have a realtor pull acceptable comparables for you to take to the assessors office. Here in our area that requires us to pull information for the time period between July of 2007 to end of january 2008. I can help get you a referral of an agent there or you can call someone you are comfortable with. I hope that helps.