I am a realtor that lives and works in Bethesda. I know the market very well in this area and will be happy to send you comps of what has sold in your area of Bethesda. The assessments hve been running higher than what a house will usually sell for in Bethesda for the last year or two. Please call or email me anytime--- 301-325-2965 and vicki.porter@LNF.com

Lee,

Your should have recieved an appeal form with your assessment. Did you file for an appeal? You may have missed the deadline. Call the tax assessment office and find out now. Ask them to send you a copy of the "field sales report". They do not do appraisals. They take the value of homes in the area and do an average.

They specifically told me to call them or file for a personal hearing. Do NOT try to negotiate by mail. They may not interpret your information in the same manner as it is intended.

Lee, I also live and work in Bethesda. It's hard to keep in mind with so much negative real estate news going around that not all areas are floundering. Bethesda is just one such place. Congratulations to us - we live in a relatively healthy market. While the number of annual sales of detached homes in 20816 was lower in 2007 than 2004, the average sales price actually increased by just under 34%.

Regardless of your appeal decision, make sure you apply for the Homestead Tax Credit which could potentially ease you into those higher property tax payments. 2007 state legislation that requires primary residence owners to apply in order to receive the credit in the future (or even to continue receiving it.) went into effect the first of the year. If you didn't receive the application with your tax assessment letter you may download it from the link below. Good luck.

One thing not to do is to visit the Zillow website. I have not found them to give accurate online value estimates. I think I read on google they were banned in Arizona, but not sure. I performed an exercise on zillow on my website. check it out.

http://dealeappraiser.com

Call me and give me the info on your house and I will email you the comps.

Bill Wootan

Office direct line -301-893-6207

Hi Lee:
The following SDAT link is your best resource for collecting relevant information and conducting research in a situation such as yours in Maryland. Look in the Data Search Users section at the bottom left of the web-site and choose Search the Real Property Database for public record information on past sales information. Would love to know the results of your efforts. Best wishes for a great New Year!

We've just gone through reassessment in Raleigh as well. You have a couple of choices. You can go to your county tax site and pull up the closed comps in your area. Look at price/'sf and choose similar properties.

You can also have a Realtor do the work for you. I've instructed my agents to notify all of their contacts that they will provide this service for free. Hopefully, you won't have any trouble finding someone to do the same.

One warning - here we have a deadline for filing an appeal. Make sure, if that's the case in your area, you submit before the deadline.

Hopefully, your home really is worth the tax value!

Good Luck!