montgomery county tax assessments - WTF

[Anonymous]

Just received our tax assessments. Our house in Burtonsville, MD had an over $200K increase. The new market value for our house is almost $900K!!! The county assessor is definitely smoking crack if they think my house, or just about any house in this area will sell for this much. Low ranked schools, several pockets of high-poverty. Even more areas of lower income residents and a few of us in the real middle class. Ridiculous increase in crime, and no where to work without heading at least 30 minutes away. This is not a desirable area of the county yet we have to pay taxes like it is!
Of course it is the county trying to make up for their wasteful spending and their inability to build and maintain a higher paying tax base.
I am glad that our last kid is graduating next year and we are moving away and I literally can't wait, but I have several elderly neighbors who are living in very old, tiny homes who have also seen their assessments go way up.
I want to complain and I want to help my neighbors complain. Outside of going thru the trouble of filing an appeal that I know I won't win, how do i draw more attention to the fact that the value of my house will not go up over 200K in 3 years. In fact, I won't be able to sell it for much more than what I paid for it 10 years ago!
Anyone else see theirs go up so much?

[Anonymous]

You need to file an appeal.

[Anonymous]

It should list recent sales that they base the assessment off of. you may need to look at the Md SDAT.

https://sdat.dat.maryland.gov/RealProperty/Pages/default.aspx

[Anonymous]

Does everyone get assessed at the same time? I don’t think I received anything but if mine go up that much, I’ll be pretty upset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just received our tax assessments. Our house in Burtonsville, MD had an over $200K increase. The new market value for our house is almost $900K!!! The county assessor is definitely smoking crack if they think my house, or just about any house in this area will sell for this much. Low ranked schools, several pockets of high-poverty. Even more areas of lower income residents and a few of us in the real middle class. Ridiculous increase in crime, and no where to work without heading at least 30 minutes away. This is not a desirable area of the county yet we have to pay taxes like it is!
Of course it is the county trying to make up for their wasteful spending and their inability to build and maintain a higher paying tax base.
I am glad that our last kid is graduating next year and we are moving away and I literally can't wait, but I have several elderly neighbors who are living in very old, tiny homes who have also seen their assessments go way up.
I want to complain and I want to help my neighbors complain. Outside of going thru the trouble of filing an appeal that I know I won't win, how do i draw more attention to the fact that the value of my house will not go up over 200K in 3 years. In fact, I won't be able to sell it for much more than what I paid for it 10 years ago!
Anyone else see theirs go up so much?

You should appeal. Sales have been so low that there’s a good chance that the comps they used are off. You should also pay attention to the land value. My lot is nearly identical to my neighbors on either side of me yet my land is assed for 50 percent more per square foot than theirs is.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, i got one too. they are definitely smoking something

[Anonymous]

Ours was completely reasonable, based on the the recent sales in the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone get assessed at the same time? I don’t think I received anything but if mine go up that much, I’ll be pretty upset.

Properties get reassessed on a three-year cycle.

Maryland and Montgomery County both have tax credit programs for homeowners on fixed incomes. Homeowners also have a homestead property tax credit, which provides that your taxable assessed value can only go up by 10% per year.

If you think your assessed value is too high, then you should appeal. If you want to help your neighbors appeal, then you should do that. Look at comparable properties in the area that recently sold.

[Anonymous]

Please do appeal! The county will jack up your assessment even more when their inspection finds all the unpermitted work y'all do. Biggest scofflaw county in the USA.

[Anonymous]

I live near Burtonsville and just got our assessment in the mail. Looks like we've gone up 33% and that it will be phased in (11% a year) over the next 3 years. I got nosy and looked at a bunch of the houses on our block (using SDAT), and it looks like everybody's house went up a similar amount. The "land" part of the assessments stayed the same, but the "improvements" all increased.

But as a PP pointed out, the homestead tax credit should limit the actual tax increase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does everyone get assessed at the same time? I don’t think I received anything but if mine go up that much, I’ll be pretty upset.

Every 3 years, so 1/3 get reassessed each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
If you think your assessed value is too high, then you should appeal. If you want to help your neighbors appeal, then you should do that. Look at comparable properties in the area that recently sold.

This is key -- you need to show comps to win an appeal. Just saying "it's too high" won't work.

[Anonymous]

I appealed and got a partial reduction. I listened to to 3 people ahead of me. The key is having comps of sales in the last 6 months to a year and being able to make a strong case about why your house and or location aren't as nice as the comps that sold for a lot. Like pictures from listings showing renovated kitchens, price per square foot, distance to undesirable things for your house (next to fire station, apt building, with X crimes reported last year, etc.). The questions the panelists asked people who didn't have recent comps and specific evidence made it sound like they didn't think they had a good case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
If you think your assessed value is too high, then you should appeal. If you want to help your neighbors appeal, then you should do that. Look at comparable properties in the area that recently sold.

This is key -- you need to show comps to win an appeal. Just saying "it's too high" won't work.

What if there are no comps. There haven’t been any house sales in our neighborhood for years.

[Anonymous]

You are not real middle class if your house is worth $900, or even $700K.