Because they are an incorporated town and make theirnown deal. (They negotiate payment for trash etc and there are spearate kensington taxes).

The county can offset assessment increases by reducing the tax rate. It chooses to capture additional revenue instead. Andrew Friedson pushed to get rid of the limit on the overall increases while handing full property tax abatements to developers.

Its not really a good deal as they pay additional Kensington taxes and many of the houses are overpriced.

Anonymous wrote:Just curious as to how Kensington is able to limit their property tax increases to 5% while many other areas in MD, even within MoCo, can gouge their residents for giant property tax increases every year based on 10% limits to increases in property assessments. Why can't everyone else in the state get as good as a deal as Kensington? Yes, it is nice when home values go up, but those are often unrealized gains, and home owners who have been living in an area for a long time can get crushed with tax increases that are largely driven by speculators pumping up property valuations. Huge tax increases completely destabilizes housing for many people.

The law leaves it up to counties and municipalities to set a homestead credit percentage between 100 and 110%. Lots of places set it at 110%, Kensington sets it at 105%. Other municipalities, outside Montgomery County, set it differently: https://dat.maryland.gov/realproperty/Documents/Homestead_Percent_Caps.pdf

Ultimately though it's because they're representatives decided to set it where they did and other people's set it differently.

Anonymous wrote:Just curious as to how Kensington is able to limit their property tax increases to 5% while many other areas in MD, even within MoCo, can gouge their residents for giant property tax increases every year based on 10% limits to increases in property assessments. Why can't everyone else in the state get as good as a deal as Kensington? Yes, it is nice when home values go up, but those are often unrealized gains, and home owners who have been living in an area for a long time can get crushed with tax increases that are largely driven by speculators pumping up property valuations. Huge tax increases completely destabilizes housing for many people.

Because they don't live in the Town of Kensington.

Anonymous wrote:The people who purchased a long time ago can sell and move to someplace where the housing is cheaper. Then as they sell, the real market price can be figured out. With property taxes, the government owns your house, and they will take as much as they can, to pay the government workers, who will then turn around and vote for politicians who will keep giving them more money.

Except the market is pricing speculation and hordes of home flippers trying to make a quick buck. What could possibly go wrong gutting the middle class through tax increase so that the only people left that can afford constant tax increase are wealthy and annoying types like lobbyists and lawyers? It's not even just old people. Our assessments have balloon by almost $300k in about 5 years. Yeah, 'home value' is nice on paper, but you can't live in your wealth in paper. Jobs are located here. Our home value just keeps going up because of so many home flippers and speculators. Meanwhile your tax assessments and tax costs for middle class folks who actually intend to live here and set their roots need stable housing yet have seen their tax bills double in a matter of no time.

The people who purchased a long time ago can sell and move to someplace where the housing is cheaper. Then as they sell, the real market price can be figured out. With property taxes, the government owns your house, and they will take as much as they can, to pay the government workers, who will then turn around and vote for politicians who will keep giving them more money.

Just curious as to how Kensington is able to limit their property tax increases to 5% while many other areas in MD, even within MoCo, can gouge their residents for giant property tax increases every year based on 10% limits to increases in property assessments. Why can't everyone else in the state get as good as a deal as Kensington? Yes, it is nice when home values go up, but those are often unrealized gains, and home owners who have been living in an area for a long time can get crushed with tax increases that are largely driven by speculators pumping up property valuations. Huge tax increases completely destabilizes housing for many people.