MoCo tax assessment

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure your tax in MoCo is $18,000 for a 1.2 million house? I live in MoCo and pay less than $7000 on a 1.1 million house.

Yep. Your assessment is likely lower than the value of your house, probably a lot lower. You probably pay only county tax and not city or local.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Bend over rich guy - enjoy

I’m definitely not rich. My property taxes will now be $18k a year and my mortgage principal and interest is less than $900 a month. I can’t afford this.

Sounds like you got in at a very low cost-basis a very long time ago, and your property value is now $1.7M? Is this correct? To be honest, at $900 a month you should have been saving A TON of money, putting it away for a rainy day. Only reason you wouldn't be able to afford this is if you are on a fixed income and retired.

Nope, bought a couple of years ago for $850k. Our income doesn’t support paying an extra $6k a year, but it does support the current rate and the expenses we budgeted for (plus reasonable increases). Our property taxes are already the bulk of our housing costs and we planned for that. We didn’t plan for a 40 percent hike. You are showing your privilege by assuming that anyone not paying very high housing costs must have plenty of spare money to save.

No way you have a less-than $900 a month mortgage on an $850K house unless you were stupid enough to put down 80% as a downpayment. Please explain how this happened. Are you in NJ, CT, or IL? Even then it still doesn't add up or make sense.

Some people really struggle with comprehension, don’t they? Our mortgage was for $180k initially. Balance is now about $165k, I think.

My reading comprehension is just fine. It's you that is struggling to understand the basics of home ownership and how property taxes and mortgages work.
You said you bought a home a couple of years ago (that's two years ago in case you think I'm not understanding) for $850k. Your mortgage is less than $900 a month (your words). The ONLY way you can achieve this is by putting down a stupidly large chunk of money in downpayment, so that your outstanding loan is maybe $190K. The county doesn't care how much of a down payment you put down, the value is the value. So back to my original statement. With a $900 a month mortgage you should be putting away so much cash that paying $18K a year in property tax isn't even an issue....because you obviously have the income to do so. In order to buy a $850K house your income is likely north of $200K a year, or around $10K a month. What the HELL are you doing with your other $9K?

No my income is nowhere near $200k (in fact about 50 percent of that), so you clearly are struggling understanding. And what’s relevant here is not how much we paid for the home, but the fact that the county wrongly decided that it has gained nearly $350k in value in less than two years. That’s the point of this thread - not your incorrect assumptions about my finances. Regardless of how much money we earn, no one should expect an unjustified $5-6k increase in property taxes.

Oh JFC - you are either stubborn or dumb. I'm going to go with stubborn. 1) how did you qualify for an $850K house with less than a $100K per year income? Oh is it because you put a large chunk of money down? Yes or No? 2) You make $100K a year, so your monthly take home is what between $5K-$6K? Again WHAT are you doing with all that extra cash since your payment is not even $900 a month 3) Appeal the increase!

Jeez! If I had money take home of $6k on 100k a year, I’d be quite happy. It’s less than $4k, take home. And I already pay $1300 in property taxes before the increase (which I’m sure you know hasn’t gone into effect yet) - so total housing costs are $2400. And I have two young kids, so obviously I have other costs. If you’d actually read my prior responses you’d see I’ve already responded to your other incorrect judgmental assumptions. And the whole point of starting this thread was not to have a dumb pointless argument with you about why I don’t miraculously have $5-6k spare a year it was TO ASK FOR TIPS IN APPEALING!!! So thanks for the advice!

Bye.

But the increase is capped at 10% so how does that equal an additional $5-6k per year?

[Anonymous]

Dude your situation makes no sense. You still have answered how you were able to afford to buy an $850K house on a $100K salary. You never answered the question of whether or not you put down a huge down payment.

Something isn't right here. Sorry but it doesn't add up. Also a property tax of $18K in MoCo means your property is valued at close to $2M. Where in the world do you live that 2 years ago you purchased at $850K, and it's now worth $2M? Even in this market that is impossible.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Bend over rich guy - enjoy

I’m definitely not rich. My property taxes will now be $18k a year and my mortgage principal and interest is less than $900 a month. I can’t afford this.

Sounds like you got in at a very low cost-basis a very long time ago, and your property value is now $1.7M? Is this correct? To be honest, at $900 a month you should have been saving A TON of money, putting it away for a rainy day. Only reason you wouldn't be able to afford this is if you are on a fixed income and retired.

Nope, bought a couple of years ago for $850k. Our income doesn’t support paying an extra $6k a year, but it does support the current rate and the expenses we budgeted for (plus reasonable increases). Our property taxes are already the bulk of our housing costs and we planned for that. We didn’t plan for a 40 percent hike. You are showing your privilege by assuming that anyone not paying very high housing costs must have plenty of spare money to save.

No way you have a less-than $900 a month mortgage on an $850K house unless you were stupid enough to put down 80% as a downpayment. Please explain how this happened. Are you in NJ, CT, or IL? Even then it still doesn't add up or make sense.

Some people really struggle with comprehension, don’t they? Our mortgage was for $180k initially. Balance is now about $165k, I think.

My reading comprehension is just fine. It's you that is struggling to understand the basics of home ownership and how property taxes and mortgages work.
You said you bought a home a couple of years ago (that's two years ago in case you think I'm not understanding) for $850k. Your mortgage is less than $900 a month (your words). The ONLY way you can achieve this is by putting down a stupidly large chunk of money in downpayment, so that your outstanding loan is maybe $190K. The county doesn't care how much of a down payment you put down, the value is the value. So back to my original statement. With a $900 a month mortgage you should be putting away so much cash that paying $18K a year in property tax isn't even an issue....because you obviously have the income to do so. In order to buy a $850K house your income is likely north of $200K a year, or around $10K a month. What the HELL are you doing with your other $9K?

No my income is nowhere near $200k (in fact about 50 percent of that), so you clearly are struggling understanding. And what’s relevant here is not how much we paid for the home, but the fact that the county wrongly decided that it has gained nearly $350k in value in less than two years. That’s the point of this thread - not your incorrect assumptions about my finances. Regardless of how much money we earn, no one should expect an unjustified $5-6k increase in property taxes.

Oh JFC - you are either stubborn or dumb. I'm going to go with stubborn. 1) how did you qualify for an $850K house with less than a $100K per year income? Oh is it because you put a large chunk of money down? Yes or No? 2) You make $100K a year, so your monthly take home is what between $5K-$6K? Again WHAT are you doing with all that extra cash since your payment is not even $900 a month 3) Appeal the increase!

Jeez! If I had money take home of $6k on 100k a year, I’d be quite happy. It’s less than $4k, take home. And I already pay $1300 in property taxes before the increase (which I’m sure you know hasn’t gone into effect yet) - so total housing costs are $2400. And I have two young kids, so obviously I have other costs. If you’d actually read my prior responses you’d see I’ve already responded to your other incorrect judgmental assumptions. And the whole point of starting this thread was not to have a dumb pointless argument with you about why I don’t miraculously have $5-6k spare a year it was TO ASK FOR TIPS IN APPEALING!!! So thanks for the advice!

Bye.

It sounds like your taxes are going up $200 a month or $2,400 a year. If that’s a financial hardship maybe you could refinance or do a home equity loan? It really doesn’t seem like that crazy of an increase though—13% ish? Sorry I can’t keep track of all your numbers to be sure.

[Anonymous]

Annual Taxes on something you already own is an absurd concept.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bend over rich guy - enjoy

I’m definitely not rich. My property taxes will now be $18k a year and my mortgage principal and interest is less than $900 a month. I can’t afford this.

Sounds like you got in at a very low cost-basis a very long time ago, and your property value is now $1.7M? Is this correct? To be honest, at $900 a month you should have been saving A TON of money, putting it away for a rainy day. Only reason you wouldn't be able to afford this is if you are on a fixed income and retired.

Nope, bought a couple of years ago for $850k. Our income doesn’t support paying an extra $6k a year, but it does support the current rate and the expenses we budgeted for (plus reasonable increases). Our property taxes are already the bulk of our housing costs and we planned for that. We didn’t plan for a 40 percent hike. You are showing your privilege by assuming that anyone not paying very high housing costs must have plenty of spare money to save.

No way you have a less-than $900 a month mortgage on an $850K house unless you were stupid enough to put down 80% as a downpayment. Please explain how this happened. Are you in NJ, CT, or IL? Even then it still doesn't add up or make sense.

Some people really struggle with comprehension, don’t they? Our mortgage was for $180k initially. Balance is now about $165k, I think.

Seems like PP was right that you put down 80%, doesn't seem like they struggle with reading comprehension to me. If you had $650K in cash to buy a house, you're going to struggle to get a ton of sympathy over $6K a year in taxes.

We sold prior home which quadrupled in value due to gentrification after living there 20 years. Never actually had “cash” on hand, just rolled it over into a new home. Never had income above $120k and never had a mortgage balance higher than $200k since first becoming home owners in 2000.

Dude, that was cash on hand, how do you not know this? Now it’s tied up in real estate when it could be invested and paying your tax bill.

It’s not tied up it’s invested in real estate. If it was invested elsewhere it would need enough GUARANTEED income to pay the significantly larger mortgage and also be able to qualify for that larger mortgage. Again, you are in a privileged position if you think everyone has the luxuries you do.

You took out a $189K on an $850K house, so that’s over 75% down as the PP pointed out, doesn’t matter where the cash came from. Odds are you could have qualified for a much larger mortgage with far less income than the other PP quoted, especially with $500K invested. That’s your guarantee.

On the one hand you’re nearly complaining that your first house appreciated due to gentrification. At the same time you think you’re too poor to pay taxes on the new house because it’s appreciating so fast..

Homestead means the actual value taxed bill will never increase more than 10% per year. Your appreciation has out paced your tax bill, that’s an okay problem to have.

When I did this, I had to fill out a form. Maybe they don't know about it? I was looking through the posts to find someone that mentioned this credit. Can't believe no one else did!

[Anonymous]

The credit I have and softens blow a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The credit I have and softens blow a bit.

Are you the OP? Because OP said that her assessment went up 40%. It's capped at 10% per year if she has the credit which would mean an increase of 30% is the maximum amount.

[Anonymous]

I still want to know how a house purchased two years ago for $850K suddenly has a property tax of $18K a year. I went to the MoCo property tax database, chose a random house (in CCMD) that sold in 2020 for $850K, their TOTAL TAX OWED in 2021 was $8152.33. Nowhere close to $18K.


TAX DESCRIPTION ASSESSMENT RATE TAX/CHARGE
STATE PROPERTY TAX 685,767 0.1120* 768.06
COUNTY PROPERTY TAX 685,767 0.9905* 6,792.53
SOLID WASTE CHARGE 478.2400 478.24
WATER QUAL PROTECT CHG 113.50

TOTAL 8,152.33

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still want to know how a house purchased two years ago for $850K suddenly has a property tax of $18K a year. I went to the MoCo property tax database, chose a random house (in CCMD) that sold in 2020 for $850K, their TOTAL TAX OWED in 2021 was $8152.33. Nowhere close to $18K.


TAX DESCRIPTION ASSESSMENT RATE TAX/CHARGE
STATE PROPERTY TAX 685,767 0.1120* 768.06
COUNTY PROPERTY TAX 685,767 0.9905* 6,792.53
SOLID WASTE CHARGE 478.2400 478.24
WATER QUAL PROTECT CHG 113.50

TOTAL 8,152.33

I've been assuming that OP is in an incorporated area that charges a separate property tax, because otherwise the numbers don't make any sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still want to know how a house purchased two years ago for $850K suddenly has a property tax of $18K a year. I went to the MoCo property tax database, chose a random house (in CCMD) that sold in 2020 for $850K, their TOTAL TAX OWED in 2021 was $8152.33. Nowhere close to $18K.


TAX DESCRIPTION ASSESSMENT RATE TAX/CHARGE
STATE PROPERTY TAX 685,767 0.1120* 768.06
COUNTY PROPERTY TAX 685,767 0.9905* 6,792.53
SOLID WASTE CHARGE 478.2400 478.24
WATER QUAL PROTECT CHG 113.50

TOTAL 8,152.33

I've been assuming that OP is in an incorporated area that charges a separate property tax, because otherwise the numbers don't make any sense.

Okay fair enough. So I just pulled up a house in the Town of Somerset (incorporated area of CCMD) . The house sold for $990K in 2020. Their 2021 property tax is $13K . The additional tax for Town of Somerset is $1100.40. Again, none of what OP posted makes sense, and it just doesn't add up.

TAX DESCRIPTION ASSESSMENT RATE TAX/CHARGE
STATE PROPERTY TAX 1,100,400 0.1120* 1,232.45
COUNTY PROPERTY TAX 1,100,400 0.9905* 10,899.45
SOMERSET PROPERTY TAX 1,100,400 0.1000* 1,100.40
SOLID WASTE CHARGE 38.0700 38.07
WATER QUAL PROTECT CHG 113.50
TOTAL 13,383.87

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still want to know how a house purchased two years ago for $850K suddenly has a property tax of $18K a year. I went to the MoCo property tax database, chose a random house (in CCMD) that sold in 2020 for $850K, their TOTAL TAX OWED in 2021 was $8152.33. Nowhere close to $18K.


TAX DESCRIPTION ASSESSMENT RATE TAX/CHARGE
STATE PROPERTY TAX 685,767 0.1120* 768.06
COUNTY PROPERTY TAX 685,767 0.9905* 6,792.53
SOLID WASTE CHARGE 478.2400 478.24
WATER QUAL PROTECT CHG 113.50

TOTAL 8,152.33

I've been assuming that OP is in an incorporated area that charges a separate property tax, because otherwise the numbers don't make any sense.

Okay fair enough. So I just pulled up a house in the Town of Somerset (incorporated area of CCMD) . The house sold for $990K in 2020. Their 2021 property tax is $13K . The additional tax for Town of Somerset is $1100.40. Again, none of what OP posted makes sense, and it just doesn't add up.

TAX DESCRIPTION ASSESSMENT RATE TAX/CHARGE
STATE PROPERTY TAX 1,100,400 0.1120* 1,232.45
COUNTY PROPERTY TAX 1,100,400 0.9905* 10,899.45
SOMERSET PROPERTY TAX 1,100,400 0.1000* 1,100.40
SOLID WASTE CHARGE 38.0700 38.07
WATER QUAL PROTECT CHG 113.50
TOTAL 13,383.87

I think the math works in Takoma Park, their local rate it a lot higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still want to know how a house purchased two years ago for $850K suddenly has a property tax of $18K a year. I went to the MoCo property tax database, chose a random house (in CCMD) that sold in 2020 for $850K, their TOTAL TAX OWED in 2021 was $8152.33. Nowhere close to $18K.


TAX DESCRIPTION ASSESSMENT RATE TAX/CHARGE
STATE PROPERTY TAX 685,767 0.1120* 768.06
COUNTY PROPERTY TAX 685,767 0.9905* 6,792.53
SOLID WASTE CHARGE 478.2400 478.24
WATER QUAL PROTECT CHG 113.50

TOTAL 8,152.33

I've been assuming that OP is in an incorporated area that charges a separate property tax, because otherwise the numbers don't make any sense.

Okay fair enough. So I just pulled up a house in the Town of Somerset (incorporated area of CCMD) . The house sold for $990K in 2020. Their 2021 property tax is $13K . The additional tax for Town of Somerset is $1100.40. Again, none of what OP posted makes sense, and it just doesn't add up.

TAX DESCRIPTION ASSESSMENT RATE TAX/CHARGE
STATE PROPERTY TAX 1,100,400 0.1120* 1,232.45
COUNTY PROPERTY TAX 1,100,400 0.9905* 10,899.45
SOMERSET PROPERTY TAX 1,100,400 0.1000* 1,100.40
SOLID WASTE CHARGE 38.0700 38.07
WATER QUAL PROTECT CHG 113.50
TOTAL 13,383.87

OP has received an assessment, not a new tax bill. So anything they say about their new bill involves them doing math. OP paid $850K two years ago but doesn't know what a down payment is, so there's that. Let's hope OP qualifies for the homestead tax credit and someone else is looking after these things: https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Finance/homestead.html

Given that, it's simple, regardless of assessment, the cap is 10%. So multiply last year's tax bill by 1.10 and that's an upper bound on this year's bill. (The water and solid waste are fees, so shouldn't be tied to assessment and could be excluded.) PP says last years bill was $12,000, so this year will be no more than $13,200.

This table has total tax rates in MoCo https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Finance/Resources/Files/data/propertytaxrate/2021/realproperty.pdf. Everyone pays at least 1.1025 per $100, and the max is 1.6422 per $100 in Friendship Heights. So a house assessed at 1.2M could pay a bill as high as $19,700. Still don't know what the actual calculation was, an 18K bill would be possible without homestead.

[Anonymous]

Ours went up 12.5% but we will not appeal because it is significantly below what I think the house is worth. The assessment is supposed to be market rate but we have owned our house for 15 years and this assessment is the first assessment to value the house for more than what we paid for it prior to the housing market boom and improvements we made. It is now only assessed at $30k more than we paid and I think it is actually worth at least $150k more than we paid.

[Anonymous]

Last point re OPs calculation:
850K purchase price assessed at 1.2M is a 41% increase. Which checks.
12K tax bill going to 18K, is a 50% increase. Which regardless is a significant miscalculation or exaggeration.