• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Sacramento Appraisal Blog | Real Estate Appraiser

Real estate appraisals for divorce, estate settlement, loans, property tax appeal, pre-listing and more. We cover Sacramento, Placer and Yolo County. We're professional, courteous and timely.

  • About
  • Appraisals
  • Order
  • Ask Ryan
  • Areas
  • Classes
  • Press
  • Trends
  • Share
  • Contact

property tax articles

Why is your recent purchase assessed so much higher than the purchase price?

August 3, 2012 By Ryan Lundquist Leave a Comment

I’ve been getting this question quite a bit lately. Home owners wonder sometimes why their assessed value is so much higher than the purchase price. It doesn’t make any sense, right? Well, let me share with you a scenario to explain why this happens sometimes. I spoke with a home owner this week, and his property is currently assessed at $350,000 despite the property being purchased in April 2012 for $200,000. Obviously this is a huge difference, and it’s highly inconvenient too since his tax bill is now $1,500+ higher than expected.

Why does this happen? When you purchase a property in the latter part of the first or second quarter of the year in Sacramento County, sometimes the Assessor is not able to reassess your property before the new assessments are published on  July 2. This means that even though you purchased at a much lower level (market value presumably), the Assessor’s value is not based on your new purchase because they couldn’t get the new data in the system before assessments were posted.

What should you do when this happens?

  1. Call the Assessor’s Office to discuss your situation.
  2. You’ll most likely be reassessed come October since The Assessor reviews purchases in the beginning of the year to catch errors like this (see points 5 & 6 though).
  3. You’ll be issued a refund if you overpaid on your property taxes.
  4. Don’t hire anyone to appeal your property taxes until you hear back from the Assessor. Why? Because this scenario above is most likely really just a logistical issue due to the time you purchased your property rather than blatant overassessment. Hopefully your property will be reassessed in October to a level more consistent with your purchase price.
  5. However, if the Assessor does think your property is worth the higher amount and you know that’s not the case, then it’s time to appeal.
  6. If you don’t hear from the Assessor’s office by mid-October or early November, let’s talk. Do not let the deadline to appeal on November 30, 2012 pass before you do something. If the deadline to appeal does pass though, keep in mind you have four years to appeal your base-year value (This is only for “base year” value situations. Most other property tax scenarios have much less time – only a matter of months).

While it can be really frustrating to be in this situation, I hope this was helpful to answer some of your questions. Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions or property tax appeal issues to discuss.

If you liked this post, subscribe by email (or RSS). Thanks for being here.

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Property Taxes, Resources Tagged With: assessed too high, difference between purchase price and assessment, Home Appraiser, House Appraiser, how to dispute property taxes, overassessment, proeprty tax advice, property tax articles, property tax consultant Sacramento, Sacramento County Appraiser, tax advice

Primary Sidebar

Connect with Ryan

 Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube Instagram

Subscribe to Weekly Post

* indicates required

Search this site

Blog Categories

  • Appraisal Stuff (408)
  • Bankruptcy (3)
  • Divorce (4)
  • Estate Settlement (6)
  • FHA Appraisal Articles (56)
  • Internet (53)
  • Market Trends (486)
  • Photos from the Field (126)
  • Property Taxes (70)
  • Random Stuff (231)
  • Resources (566)
  • Videos (161)

Blog Archives: 2009 – 2021

Lundquist Appraisal Links

  • Appraisal Order Form
  • Appraisal Website
  • Rancho Cordova Appraiser Website
  • Sacramento Appraisal Blog Sitemap
  • Sacramento Real Estate Appraiser Facebook Page
  • Twitter: Sacramento Appraiser (@SacAppraiser)
  • YouTube: Sacramento Appraiser Channel

Most Recent Posts

  • The housing market feels like chaos
  • An explosion of appraisal waivers. Is that good or bad?
  • Skyrocketing prices aren’t happening everywhere
  • The housing market feels like a crazy auction
  • Are appraisers keeping up with rapid price growth?
  • How much have prices risen since the bottom of the market?
  • How long can this market keep going?
  • What is your housing persona?
  • Rapid price growth & the Gilmore Girls next door
  • Are first-time buyers targeting 2-4 unit properties?

Disclaimer

First off, thank you for being here. Now let's get into the fine print. The material and information contained on this website is the copyrighted property of Ryan Lundquist and Lundquist Appraisal Company. Content on this website may not be reproduced or republished without prior written permission from Ryan Lundquist.

Please see my Sharing Policy on the navigation bar if you are interested in sharing portions of any content on this blog.

The information on this website is meant entirely for educational purposes and is not intended in any way to support an opinion of value for your appraisal needs or any sort of value conclusion for a loan, litigation, tax appeal or any other potential real estate or non-real estate purpose. The material found on this website is meant for casual reading only and is not intended for use in a court of law or any other legal use. Ryan will not appear in court in any capacity based on any information posted here. For more detailed market analysis to be used for an appraisal report or any appraisal-related purpose or valuation consulting, please contact Ryan at 916-595-3735 for more information.

There are no affiliate links on this blog, but there are three advertisements. Please do your homework before doing business with any advertisers as advertisements are not affiliated with this blog in any way. Two ads are located on the sidebar and one is at the bottom of each post. The ads earn a minor amount of revenue and are a simple reward for providing consistent original content to readers. If you think the ads interfere with your blog experience or the integrity of the blog somehow, let me know. I'm always open to feedback. Thank you again for being here.

Copyright © 2021 Sacramento Appraisal Blog