As this report in the Washington Post relates, many of my fellow Northern Virginians are finding an unwelcome surprise in their mail these days.
When Linda T. Nevitte opened her 2006 property assessment notice a few days ago, she knew enough about the Northern Virginia real estate market to expect a higher assessment on her 22-year-old colonial in Sterling.
But nothing could have prepared her for what she saw — that her 2,800-square-foot home, valued at $431,300 in January 2005, was worth $603,200. That’s a 40 percent increase from one year to the next, and it is likely to lead to a whopping new tax bill for Nevitte this spring.
Its a story that has been repeated many times in Northern Virginia during the course of the booming housing market. County Boards have been reluctant to raise the real estate tax itself — the percentage of assessed value that determines what the tax amount is — but have not been shy about exploiting the rise in real estate values to increase taxes in a way that makes it impossible for homeowners to do anything about it.
In Virginia assessed value is required by law to be based upon market value and records of sales of comparable homes in the area. The problem with this is that most people are in their homes to stay. often for the long term; the fact that their house may be with 20 percent more today than when they bought them means nothing. And, quite often, the assessments themselves have little to do with reality.
Laurie F. Neff, 34, owns a home in the Sumner Lake neighborhood of Manassas. Her 3,500 square-foot home’s value rose from $535,500 to $749,600 — a 40 percent increase. Neff said she believes that the assessment is wrong because her house has been on the market for two months — for $689,000. All Neff said she could think when she read her notice was: “Are they on crack?”
Not on crack, just being greedy tax collectors.
There is a method for challenging the assessment but it is, of course, highly biased in favor of the county and unlikely to succeed in a real estate market where home values continue to go up, albeit at a slower pace.
[M]ost residents will see their property tax bills rise this year. Although local governments are considering reductions in the tax rate — seven cents in Loudoun and Fairfax counties, for example — those reductions do not counter assessment increases in those communities.
And if that isn’t irony, I don’t know what is.
Technorati Tags: Northern Virginia, Real Estate, Property Taxes
