Help me understand property taxes in Pennsylvania

[Anonymous]

PA property taxes are extremely complicated. The “assessed value” is actually a calculation of the fair market value against the “common level ratio” for the county. In other words, your assessed value may be exactly or even half of the FMV. It is intended to adjust for lags in changing FMVs.

The so-called newcomer tax is real. You have to compare the last assessed value and when that was against your FMV x CLR. If there is a huge delta expect to get hit with a spot reassessment. But if it is way out of line to your neighbors you can always appeal and hope a sympathetic judge will rule it is in violation of the state constitution. I’ve heard people say the changing CLRs make this less likely now and that many reassessments are a wash.

[Anonymous]

I live in a suburb of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County. When we purchased our home, the school district tried to increase the assessment to our purchase price. The school taxes compose the bulk of the property taxes and they do this for every new purchase. Many people contest this with comps. Unfortunately for us, around the same time a similar house sold down the street for about 100,000 higher. So we lost the protest.

There was a lawsuit recently that limits the amount of the increase in assessment.

I honestly do not understand why they do not reassess everyone on a regular basis.

Plus, the school taxes increase every year (even though our district has had a surplus for the past few years).

Many people depart for other areas with lower taxes after their kids graduate high school but we are staying for now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a suburb of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County. When we purchased our home, the school district tried to increase the assessment to our purchase price. The school taxes compose the bulk of the property taxes and they do this for every new purchase. Many people contest this with comps. Unfortunately for us, around the same time a similar house sold down the street for about 100,000 higher. So we lost the protest.

There was a lawsuit recently that limits the amount of the increase in assessment.

I honestly do not understand why they do not reassess everyone on a regular basis.

Plus, the school taxes increase every year (even though our district has had a surplus for the past few years).

Many people depart for other areas with lower taxes after their kids graduate high school but we are staying for now.

Let me guess: Wilkinsburg? They have massive tax issues due to being a very poor township that has a small area of nice houses in Regent Square. So the Regent Square houses get taxed at an insane rate.

We paid something like $250k for a house in Wilkinsburg a little over a decade ago. When the inevitable reassessment came in, our property tax jumped to something like $11,000 a year. I paid less property tax on a million dollar house in PG County.

[Anonymous]

Oh, wait. No. If your school district has had a surplus for the past few years, it's definitely not Wilkinsburg.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having just bought a $1mm+ house on the main line from out of state, I was told by my realtor that. they simply never update the assessments. Instead, they increase the tax rate when more funds are needed. This actually makes a lot of sense and does not result in, say, new homeowners paying astronomically higher taxes than people who have been in their house longer. This I'm sure varies by municipality. But the assessed value of the home I just bought is approx 1/3 of the price I paid.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having just bought a $1mm+ house on the main line from out of state, I was told by my realtor that. they simply never update the assessments. Instead, they increase the tax rate when more funds are needed. This actually makes a lot of sense and does not result in, say, new homeowners paying astronomically higher taxes than people who have been in their house longer. This I'm sure varies by municipality. But the assessed value of the home I just bought is approx 1/3 of the price I paid.

Ima previous poster. We were told the same thing by our realtor. Then a year after we bought our school district requested a spot assessment of just our home. The county did that and adjusted it up to our purchase price. Which doubled our tax amount. Then covid hit and our schools went from being rated 7 to 3. So, we don't have good schools. So, after the kids are out of school in a few years we will move to. Shame on us for believing our realtor. Expensive lesson learned.

My realtor told me this also. How long was it between when you bought the house and when they issued the spot assessment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a suburb of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County. When we purchased our home, the school district tried to increase the assessment to our purchase price. The school taxes compose the bulk of the property taxes and they do this for every new purchase. Many people contest this with comps. Unfortunately for us, around the same time a similar house sold down the street for about 100,000 higher. So we lost the protest.

There was a lawsuit recently that limits the amount of the increase in assessment.

I honestly do not understand why they do not reassess everyone on a regular basis.

Plus, the school taxes increase every year (even though our district has had a surplus for the past few years).

Many people depart for other areas with lower taxes after their kids graduate high school but we are staying for now.

Let me guess: Wilkinsburg? They have massive tax issues due to being a very poor township that has a small area of nice houses in Regent Square. So the Regent Square houses get taxed at an insane rate.

We paid something like $250k for a house in Wilkinsburg a little over a decade ago. When the inevitable reassessment came in, our property tax jumped to something like $11,000 a year. I paid less property tax on a million dollar house in PG County.

Nope - USC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having just bought a $1mm+ house on the main line from out of state, I was told by my realtor that. they simply never update the assessments. Instead, they increase the tax rate when more funds are needed. This actually makes a lot of sense and does not result in, say, new homeowners paying astronomically higher taxes than people who have been in their house longer. This I'm sure varies by municipality. But the assessed value of the home I just bought is approx 1/3 of the price I paid.

Ima previous poster. We were told the same thing by our realtor. Then a year after we bought our school district requested a spot assessment of just our home. The county did that and adjusted it up to our purchase price. Which doubled our tax amount. Then covid hit and our schools went from being rated 7 to 3. So, we don't have good schools. So, after the kids are out of school in a few years we will move to. Shame on us for believing our realtor. Expensive lesson learned.

What town was this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a suburb of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County. When we purchased our home, the school district tried to increase the assessment to our purchase price. The school taxes compose the bulk of the property taxes and they do this for every new purchase. Many people contest this with comps. Unfortunately for us, around the same time a similar house sold down the street for about 100,000 higher. So we lost the protest.

There was a lawsuit recently that limits the amount of the increase in assessment.

I honestly do not understand why they do not reassess everyone on a regular basis.

Plus, the school taxes increase every year (even though our district has had a surplus for the past few years).

Many people depart for other areas with lower taxes after their kids graduate high school but we are staying for now.

Let me guess: Wilkinsburg? They have massive tax issues due to being a very poor township that has a small area of nice houses in Regent Square. So the Regent Square houses get taxed at an insane rate.

We paid something like $250k for a house in Wilkinsburg a little over a decade ago. When the inevitable reassessment came in, our property tax jumped to something like $11,000 a year. I paid less property tax on a million dollar house in PG County.

Nope - USC.

USC is great. We moved here a few years ago and house was reassessed at around 65% of purchase price. School taxes are high so I wouldn’t live here without kids, but sending two from K-12 in a top-rated district still seems like a good value (and much cheaper than independent privates)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Delaware also does not adjust

California mostly adjusts when property is sold. Prop 13 put a low cap on yearly assessed value increases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having just bought a $1mm+ house on the main line from out of state, I was told by my realtor that. they simply never update the assessments. Instead, they increase the tax rate when more funds are needed. This actually makes a lot of sense and does not result in, say, new homeowners paying astronomically higher taxes than people who have been in their house longer. This I'm sure varies by municipality. But the assessed value of the home I just bought is approx 1/3 of the price I paid.

I’m in Philadelphia and they definitely adjust. We had a big one a year or two ago where ours went up by nearly 40%. It was a shocker and we got a letter saying we could dispute it if our income was under some amount like $150k. We started out at about $3500 when we bought and we’re up over $8k now. Which wouldn’t be so bad if the schools were good or they actually salted and plowed our street, which they absolutely do not :/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having just bought a $1mm+ house on the main line from out of state, I was told by my realtor that. they simply never update the assessments. Instead, they increase the tax rate when more funds are needed. This actually makes a lot of sense and does not result in, say, new homeowners paying astronomically higher taxes than people who have been in their house longer. This I'm sure varies by municipality. But the assessed value of the home I just bought is approx 1/3 of the price I paid.

I’m in Philadelphia and they definitely adjust. We had a big one a year or two ago where ours went up by nearly 40%. It was a shocker and we got a letter saying we could dispute it if our income was under some amount like $150k. We started out at about $3500 when we bought and we’re up over $8k now. Which wouldn’t be so bad if the schools were good or they actually salted and plowed our street, which they absolutely do not :/

To be clear, I mean they reassessed the value and everyone’s taxes jumped. I think it was the whole city at once, but it’s possible they reassessed neighborhoods on a rolling basis, idk.

[Anonymous]

Pennsylvania property taxes can be tricky, but it's alright once you get the hang of it. Taxes are based on the assessed value of your property, which your county assessor decides. Different counties have different rates, so it can vary depending on where you live. You’ll also need to check if your area has local taxes, which could add to the overall amount.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Pennsylvania has a school tax, which can be a big chunk of the property tax bill. If you’re unsure where to start, a good move is to reach out to a local tax consultant who can give you the full picture. Check out thevatconsultancy.com for some expert advice—it’s an excellent place to start.

[Anonymous]

Maryland overall has cheap property taxes. Just MoCo highly valued homes close in to DC are getting higher taxes as prices are rising quickly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Delaware also does not adjust

California mostly adjusts when property is sold. Prop 13 put a low cap on yearly assessed value increases.

And quickly. My friend bought his big trade up home in California in Feb 2020 if he sold it today his new buyer would pay double property taxes due to huge run up in home prices since Feb 2020 which is crazy. He paid two million a home in Malibu in Feb 2020 that today is worth 4 million.