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Assessments up a bit in most areas
07/07/2017 7:50 AM by John M
The 2018 reassessments are in the mail and online and a spot check around the neighborhood show some flat assessments but more increases – especially near the parks and in Church Hill North (though nothing like 2005…). How’s yours?
TAGGED: assessment
Significant increase at the house on 20th, maybe 9% if I’m remembering correctly; while we made some improvements, nothing externally, or that the assessor would know about.
Important to note that a lot of the assessments went up because the LAND value went up, not because anything was done to the home itself to make its value increase. This is what happens when a neighborhood becomes popular and something us old time Church Hillians have to deal with in order to have neighbors who actually take care of their properties rather than let them be in ruins.
Also, if your street/block wasn’t “desirable” a year or two ago and is now since the area improvements are moving out from Broad, then that is another reason your home value will also increase.
Important to pull your own property from the above online parcel mapper to see what went up, land or home.
= higher taxes
Mine went up 10% and the land value went up 33%. With all that new found money I hope they can cut the grass more often!
Assessments are “up a bit” is quite an understatement. Mine went up 27% without any improvement around the area. I guess the famous East End Festival needs more funding.
Mine is up 43% on East Marshall 1 block off Chimborazo Park…
Bet you a dollar all these people complaining about how their property assessments went up a little bit & are now bitching about marginal increase in taxes are ignoring the reality that the market rate for their homes is very likely at least 30%-50% above the assessed value.
Give me a break.
Mine went up over 25% with no improvement. I went to the city to asked how they come up with that number but it appears that the assessment value is just subjective since they were unable to explain it to me and does not seem to be comparable to similar properties on my block. I filed an appeal.
@6 Dave, we are neighbors but they did not get me that bad! I am complaining about ~26%, I am not sure what would do if the increase was 43%.
Everyone:
Here is the link for you to appeal in case you think the assessment value is not fair:
http://www.richmondgov.com/Assessor/AssessmentAppealProcess.aspx
Yea, ‘a bit’ is right!! Gotta close that budget gap!!
Does anyone know how to dispute? My home says it’s worth much less on zillow and other sites
Mine went up 48% in Fulton. That’s a hard pill to swallow.
@7…you don’t know what you’re talking about. 1 house gets gutted and completely renovated, then sells high, and the city decides everything around it must be worth a lot more if someone paid X for that property. Happens all the time. No major improvements made and I know I don’t get to sell this week for 30-50% above my new assessment like you say.
Then dispute the assessment, Dave 😉
Mine is still exactly the same
@11 – Natalie: Zillow estimates and similar online estimates are notoriously inaccurate. Just web search “zillow estimate accuracy” and you’ll find dozens of articles from reputable newspapers (sorry, typing this on my phone and it won’t let me copy and paste for some reason) explaining why. Generally, Zillow estimates are within five percent only have the time – and five percent isn’t great. The other half of the time they are usually wildly inaccurate.
Guess my point is the tax assessor isn’t likely to care.
@13 Dave – typically, that one house that was renovated had substantial upside (I.e. The seller spent $175,000 buying it and renovating it and sold it for $250,000), meaning the homes on the block that aren’t renovated are effectively underutilized, as are any empty lots. You should, in fact be able to sell your home for more money if the neighboring homes are renovated and sold for relatively high prices because it demonstrates that there is potential profit in renovating your home. You would probably make even more on the sell, of course, if you renovated and sold it yourself. Realistically, you may not be able to sell for 30-50% above assessment. In fact, the new assessment could mean that you are able to take less of a premium over the assessment, as the new assessment is meant to close the gap between assessment and actual value!
Related: Last year, we renovated a fourplex that was previously vacant and boarded up. We also owned neighboring property, including another fourplex which is attached to the building we renovated. ALL of our property values went up by forty percent or more, despite the fact that we had not renovated any of the others. It’s irritating when you get the bill, but it happens.
And yes, I realize this has really crappy implications for long term and/or low income residents. Not saying this is inherently a good or bad thing.
Higher property assessments means higher taxes, and raises the cost of rentals. I know many of us on this blog think gentrification is bad, but higher property values, rent, and taxes pushes the riff-raff out. Isn’t that what we all want?
Neighbor: Gentrification is NOT about riff raff!! It’s about pushing out stable people who have lived in their homes for years. I’m all for pushing out the low lifes – the type of people that are in this area because no one pays attention to the bad things they do and they like it that way. There are a lot of people in my area of Church Hill ((Chimborazo) that are 2nd or 3rd generation living in the home they grew up in. I do not want to lose those neighbors.
And the real estate assessments are what created the real gentrification that is not about race but about economics. Church Hill has a long history of diversity… until the 90s, when developers and speculators caught on to the changes happening. Instead of the diversity in race, gender, age, sexual orientation, creative artistry, and so much more that made us move and buy homes in Church Hill in the 60s-90s, the area has become “The Junior Fan District” pushing out those of lesser means and a real engagement with neighbors. It’s what happens everywhere, but it’s still very sad to see a community go from all about people to all about wealth and bling. Wanting to help people know how great it was, many of us worked to bring people east and show off our neighborhood. Be careful what you wish for. I hope the people who living north of Broad watch and move carefully.
up 22% this year, and 31% last year. Clay st. near Chimborazo Park. If the city has a goal of making sure only the well-off can afford to live in CH, they’re doing great. For those who aspire to things other than money (we riff-raff), I suppose our days are numbered.
Kathleen:
If someone has lived in a house for generations then I expect there shouldn’t be a mortgage, all they are paying is taxes. If someone is living in house they got for free and can’t even pay the taxes, or if they refinanced to use the house as an ATM, that sounds like people who made a lot of bad choices with their lives and their money. That’s exactly the definition of riff-raff if you ask me.