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Real estate assessments show more decline than last year
01/20/2010 4:03 PM by John M
The 2010 real estate assessments are now available online. A spot check around the neighborhood shows more depreciation than last year, with some properties remaining flat or with very small appreciation.
The Fairmount area and north seem to show a consistent 3 or 4 drop in assessed value. A number of higher valued properties on East Broad show reduced valuations as well.
An earlier story in the Times Dispatch quotes city assessor James Hester as saying that “he expects about half of the city’s roughly 73,000 properties will not see any change in assessed value […] while the northeastern areas of Richmond likely will see the biggest declines.” What’s it like on your block?
In light of Mayor Jones’ statement last week that the City is going to get an unexpected increase (was it ten million?) in Real Estate tax collections, this makes for some interesting reading.
An enterprising blogger can get a pretty good story by finding out exactly where this ten million (if that’s what the major said) is coming from if the majority of property is in decline or staying the same.
sucks.
Opps, sorry, the mayor said 4 million, not 10.
That new property assessment search on the City’s web site sucks. Broken beyond belief.
@ndeplume- I put in my address and it populated a map immediately. I had no trouble and thought it was pretty informational, actually. it even gave my council district, etc.
I have a question. The website listed my area as Tobacco Row/ Undertakers Row. I’ve never heard the expression Undertakers Row before, has anyone else? Does anyone know where that comes from?
#4. It looks like the city is redesigning the entire website. Property search worked fine for me for two searches, then crashed on the third. #1. The mayor’s comments to council were that the reduction in revenue from reassessments would show that we declined by $4 million less than earlier projected, not that we increased by $4m. I agree that the wording used was less than efficient, but RE tax revenues are still down city-wide by about 5-6%. But our financial picture would still be manageable if it were not for the reductions coming in state funding. The Kaine budget hurt; the McDonnell budget will shift even more of the burden onto local government. Remember that in Richmond about 50% of the real estate is non-taxed (government, non-profits, churches), and the poverty rate is 26%, effectively moving those people from the tax rolls. The whole burden must be left on what’s left, about 30-40% of the population.
I found my house (and my neighbors) very easily on that website. My assessment went way up a few years ago, but has stayed the same since.
I did not have any problem searching the website for my property.
From the new home page I went to Online Services then property search.
Worked great and has more info then before.
mine went up almost 9% ??
#5,,,,It’s simple. If you are a consumer of the products of Tobacco Row, you are likely to become a consumer of the products of Undertakers Row.
My assessment went down $300.00.
That still leaves the question as to the source of this extra four million, even if it’s not enough to help much.
Unless I’m missing something, either new development in the City is paying off or some property owners are going to see an increase in their assessments or a combination of both.
It would nice to hear an explanation.
As for the website, I had no trouble last night, but today was a nightmare…. could it be an overload as property owners check their situations?
look a little harder… there are some properties in the area where assessments have increased by 30%.
It’s probable that some of the difference is made up by successful collection of delinquent taxes.
Our paper copy came today.
Mine went up 25%! A hike of 75K.
What part of the area are you in?
1/2 block north of Broad on 28th
Are you happy with that or not? A friend of mine wh has had her house on the market for over two years is pretty bummed because her assessment dropped to below her asking price.
My assesment went up +13%, According to the RTD the City’s average decrease 4.8% That means my Asmnt is 18% higher than the average. Where are all the areas and houses that went down or decreased? What was the critera for assesments and was it applied universally and fairly?? Where is the promised public transparency? Finally, has C.H. now become the Assesment Cash-Cow of the City?
I am told that the Assessor’s Office has offered to brief each member of council about his or her district and that several have been briefed. In addition, the assessor is coming to some of the council distioct meetings when invited. His website also has information about other assessments (you only need an address) and sales last year by neighborhood or census tract.
My home’s assessment went up 40%. My next door neighbor’s went up about 30%. Ouch.
It is my contention that if the city changed the assesments (based on facts, logic or data), that they should share that data with the home owner at the time of the change. I have gone to the city’s web site and seen the appeal forms. The home owner must go out and get their own data to refute the city – WHY? – are requiring the home owner to prove to the jury city injustice was done when there seems to be no requirement for the city to present the data whereby they made the change in the first place. This is NOT right and it is NOT transparent government?
City, show us your decision data!.
We received our 2010 assessment on Friday. It was $100 below last year’s assessment which was inflated, but I didn’t fight it. I won’t repeat that mistake this year. Last year, Wachovia took away our 2 HELOC’s, stating that our housing value dropped $70K. Our realtor said last January that we couldn’t sell our house (without losing our shirts) because the value has dropped $70K. Zillow.com reports this morning that our house is now $100K lower. We have long accepted this as our reality. Yet the City of Richmond tells me that my house has maintained value. What kind of creative analysis are they performing downtown? Or are they performing analysis at all? I’d say this City was operating in a vacuum, unaware of the housing market crash, but I hear them cry about economics on the news daily. I’m confused.
The assessment states in writing “The laws of the City of Richmond and the Commonweath of Virginia require fair market value assessments.” The assessment also says that my estimate is based on “all sales data and other supporting information.” If that were true, my assessment would be considerably less. It seems to me that the City is purposely not performing due diligence for at least this one citizen (and my neighbor – his assessment went up $100!). I already engaged my realtor helping me gather all the necessary documentation to appeal. And I called my assessor on Friday and he’s supposed to come out on Monday to “see what we can do.” But I shouldn’t have to appeal and go through this time and effort to right a wrong that should be self-evident to the City given our economic situation (common sense????). I can’t help but think the City is purposely doing this in hopes that the homeowners won’t go through the trouble of fighting inflated assessments. Can’t we hold them accountable? To me, this whole deal feels illict.
I fought my assessment after it increased exponentially for the third or fourth year in a row. (I could understand the increase for the first couple years because I had bought on foreclosure, and the property was not even livable at first.)
As a result of my dispute, the City reduced my assessment well below last year, and according to the site, readjusted to that same number for the past few years, too, which I thought was kind of odd. It was like they were effectively erasing the ebb and flow of the market by doing that. For some reason it just didn’t sit right. But whatevs.
The dispute required real leg work, which was easy for me because it is what I do for a living. But they really wanted ALL the paper. And I was happy to give them that because I honestly felt like they were rolling out of control with the increases. They also sent an “appraiser” out to check out the property, and I got to point out all of the deficiencies yet to be addressed – stuff that keeps me from feeling like I could get top market value today. Then that appraiser quit and left no trail, and we had to start again. Gah. Finally got it done, though. And all that legwork will save me a few bucks a month in escrow.
I have helped a few others by pulling comps for them, too, and each of them have successfully had the City pull their numbers in line. It can be a real pain, though…
Mine stayed same as last year, but last year I appealed, it really wasn’t hard and the guy at the city was helpful. The form isn’t difficult; the guy at the city who was in charge at least of my area was Michael Carlucci, and he was very easy to talk to. Since I’d just bought in August 08 he allowed me to use my appraisal comps even though one of them was older than it was suppposed to be. I bought a condo, and as he said, there just aren’t any condos moving up here. I had tried looking up addresses of any condos (Nolde, etc.) on the city’s data base but nothing had sold.
I would encourage anyone who is thinking of appealing to do so. I even added a cover letter putting out my thoughts as well as the data in the comps, I doubt the letter made much difference but at least that way I could say what I thought in addition to the basic facts they wanted.
This entire issue need to addressed and immediately handled via our 7th Dist Rep to City Council. Previous postings noted that most of council had been briefed on the process and implications. If Ms. Newbill has not been included it is not time for her to get the briefing and for her to advocate for her district residents. I don’t think anyone has an issue with paying our fair share for city services etc., but what we resent is approaches to doing city business in such a convoluted fashion. Ms. Newbill needs to take on the assessment from the CITIZENS point of view to what appears to be an arbitrary and capricious process (at best) by the City.