How would you like to pay taxes on twice the value of your property? I just finished a property tax appeal today for a Sacramento condominium owner. This condo was assessed at $166,000 by the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office, but the actual value was $84,500. Have a look below by comparing the blue dot ($166,000) with the rest of the black dots, which represent all sales in the neighborhood. Isn’t that wild? This condominium was assessed nearly two times actual market value, which amounts to about $1,000 too much in property taxes for the home owner to pay. 

Condominium values have been hit hard in the past several years as the real estate bubble in Sacramento burst. Why? In addition to property values decreasing for condos just as value has declined for other types of property, crammed condo living and HOA fees have seemed less appealing for buyers who can now more readily afford a backyard of their own.

If you have any questions about property tax appeals, or would like to have my property tax consulting company look up your property for free, call 916.595.3735 or see www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com.

What do you think of the property tax scenario above?

If you live in the Greater Sacramento Region and you’re wondering how to lower your property taxes, you’ve come to the right place. Here is my advice though. Before you make a decision to hire someone to help you reduce your property taxes (including my tax appeal company), wait until new assessments come out to determine if there is a real savings to be had. If you live in Sacramento or Placer County, for example, the Assessor has not yet posted their latest assessments yet, so it doesn’t make much sense to dispute your taxes until you know what their assessment is going to be for 2010.

Why am I telling you this? Because I am committed to being honest with you about the property tax appeals process and how you can save money. If it looks like the Assessor has your value wrong, I am glad to partner with you to help the Assessor understand true market value. My company’s fees are very reasonable too. On the other hand, if it looks like the Assessor has your property assessed accurately, you don’t need to do a thing.

If you want me to send you an email reminder when new assessments come out, click “contact” in the upper right hand corner of my tax appeal website, and I’ll get in touch with you soon. For now, if you have any questions about appealing your property taxes, or if there is anything I can do for you, let me know. Thank you.

By the way, the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office typically publishes their new assessments in the month of May, but right now they are expecting to get this information out at the very beginning of July. You can expect Placer County to get their information out in July also.

Sacramento Region Property Tax Appeals
TEL: 916.595.3735
FAX: 916.361.1964
www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com
info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com

NOTE: This advice is good for a traditional “decline in value” tax appeal only (it’s not applicable to a base year appeal or calamity reassessment….).

I wrote previously about the “Bursting of the Duplex Market in Sacramento“, so I figured I’d also provide a graph of the fourplex market so we can see visually what has taken place over the past three years in Sacramento County. Yes, I know Sacramento County is a large territory representing many neighborhoods and sub-markets, but I think this trend graph tells a story nonetheless. All blue dots below are sales based on data in Sacramento MLS.

Isn’t it amazing to see the impact of the housing bubble burst? Three years ago many quadruplex units in Sacramento County were selling between $400,000 to $600,000, but the bulk of sales lately have been easily hovering around $200,000 +/- or lower. With prices so low right now, many investors have understandably been purchasing 4-plex units. The ideal scenario would be to pick up a quadruplex, have postive cash flow, and then re-sell the property in a number of years when the market turns around.

I actually just finished a property tax appeal for an investor who purchased a fourplex in late 2009 for under $200,000, but the Assessor still had his property valued in the high $300,000s. He is scheduled to pay over $1,000 too much in property taxes this year because the Assessor’s records are not consistent with realistic trends in the marketplace. This is a common problem for so many properties that sold near the top of the market and are now re-selling in today’s market.

Let me know if you have any questions. Comments are welcome. Ryan 916-595-3735.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com The Crashing of the Fourplex Market in Sacramento

What’s the latest in the “Anatolia” neighborhood in Rancho Cordova? How much are houses selling for, and what are properties currently listed for on the market? Here is a quick scatter graph based upon 07/12/09 – 10/12/09 for single family detached residential properties within the defined neighborhood boundaries for Anatolia (well, technically there are no attached units located in Anatolia, but for the casual reader, I wanted to make sure the scope of data was clarified). Please note that there are more listings and pendings on the market in Anatolia, but this graph displays only listings and pendings that came on the market after 07/12/09. The intention of the graph is to display data for what has actually ocurred in Anatolia over the past three months.

I know, I know, the following sounds like a shameless plug, but this is very important information to understand. As an FYI, here is a video we made regarding lowering property taxes in Anatolia. We have been able to help Anatolia home owners over the past several months put together very thorough valuation reports to contest the level of their property taxes (the report is not a full appraisal OR near the cost of a full appraisal). Keep in mind that the deadline for disputing property taxes in Anatolia is 11/30/2009. 

Keep us posted if you have any questions. You are welcome to comment above, call 916-595-3735 or email ryan@lundquistcompany.com.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com Anatolia Neighborhood in Rancho Cordova: Sales, Pendings and Listings over the past 90 Days