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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Mike Sorce ()
Date: February 26, 2008 01:54PM

I am looking for someone who can explain something on my real estate assessment. Like most FXCO homeowners my assessed value decreased from $575K in 2007 to $550K in 2008. However, the allocation between land and building went from 30/70 to 50/50. What does this mean? Is the land suddenly more valuable?

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Kiev ()
Date: February 26, 2008 01:57PM

I am seeing the same thing on mine.
Anyone?

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Suburbanite ()
Date: February 26, 2008 02:14PM

I think they screwed up the assessments. My property total value dropped a little over 37K, no problem, it was over inflated anyway.

BUT they changed the house value from over 162K to 10K and the land value went from just over 200K to 325K. I live in an area that is pretty well fully developed, very little space left for in-fill building there's no way the land value is accurate and no way my house dropped 150K in value in one year.

It's insane.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Mike Sorce ()
Date: February 26, 2008 02:22PM

Suburbanite Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BUT they changed the house value from over 162K to
> 10K and the land value went from just over 200K to
> 325K. I live in an area that is pretty well fully
> developed, very little space left for in-fill
> building there's no way the land value is accurate
> and no way my house dropped 150K in value in one
> year.
>
My property value dropped from 400K to 275K and I think that this is what everyone is seeing. I heard someone say that one reason may be that you cannot appeal the land assessment, so by shifting the allocation it is harder to challenge.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Kiev ()
Date: February 26, 2008 02:32PM

If one cannot appeal the land assessment, that everyone just got screwed

heh

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Mike Sorce ()
Date: February 26, 2008 03:08PM

If you look at the appeal form, available at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dta, you will see that all of the information deals with the physical characteristics of the property. Therefore, you can only appeal the land assessment if it is significantly different than a comparable property in your neighborhood.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Home Owner ()
Date: February 26, 2008 05:57PM

Just read down and found this thread...similar to property assessment thread.

In any case my home dropped in value; however, my land increased in value.

Is this happening to many others? Overall, my home and land values have increased and I imagine that means higher property taxes...

Any solutions? The appeal form doesn't seem to offer much hope...

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: TheMeeper ()
Date: February 26, 2008 06:25PM

Does the Other Tax District for "Pest Prevention" apply to everyone in the entire county, or are there just certain zones that get assessed for it? According to the county website, its for spraying for gypsy moths, and mosquito abatement programs. Everything's pretty much paved over in my neighborhood, no lakes or ponds, so I'm guessing if my neighborhood gets assessed for it, then everyone must be?

Just sorta curious. I know I've never seen them spraying for gypsy moths around here, just sorta wonder why I'm paying for it.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: pgens ()
Date: February 26, 2008 08:45PM

That pays for our ammo so we can shoot the deer.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: What a Crock ()
Date: February 26, 2008 09:30PM

Wow, what a scam.

I'm seeing the same thing on my tax appraisal.

The appraisals are supposed to be based on fair market value and there is no way this can be legitimate.

House drops by 80k but the land goes up 75k?

Give me a break.

Whoever is in charge of the appraisal office should be fired as well as whatever government official came up with this scheme.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Neen ()
Date: February 26, 2008 10:18PM

TheMeeper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does the Other Tax District for "Pest Prevention"
> apply to everyone in the entire county, or are
> there just certain zones that get assessed for it?
> According to the county website, its for spraying
> for gypsy moths, and mosquito abatement programs.
> Everything's pretty much paved over in my
> neighborhood, no lakes or ponds, so I'm guessing
> if my neighborhood gets assessed for it, then
> everyone must be?
>
> Just sorta curious. I know I've never seen them
> spraying for gypsy moths around here, just sorta
> wonder why I'm paying for it.

I wondered the same thing. Is Vienna suddenly filled with pests? What pests?

My total tax assessment, and those of ALL my neighbors, remained exactly the same, although ALL of our houses lost well over $100,000 in value, and ALL of our property went up by exactly the same amount! This seems to be true county wide, suddenly our land is worth WAY more money. It makes NO sense.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Neen ()
Date: February 26, 2008 10:22PM

Home Owner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just read down and found this thread...similar to
> property assessment thread.
>
> In any case my home dropped in value; however, my
> land increased in value.
>
> Is this happening to many others? Overall, my
> home and land values have increased and I imagine
> that means higher property taxes...
>
> Any solutions? The appeal form doesn't seem to
> offer much hope...

If your overall assessment increased, then yes, you get to pay more in taxes.

I would love to know how my house lost $125,000 in value but my land increased by exactly that same amount. It's ridiculous. Land had never increased that quickly in value. Never.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Neen ()
Date: February 26, 2008 10:25PM

Mike Sorce Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you look at the appeal form, available at
> www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dta, you will see that all
> of the information deals with the physical
> characteristics of the property. Therefore, you
> can only appeal the land assessment if it is
> significantly different than a comparable property
> in your neighborhood.

SOOOO........if land assessment went up for everyone, across the county, then no one can appeal assessments? We can only appeal if the value of the house is went up?

If that is true, this is SOOOOO VERY WRONG.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: eh ()
Date: February 26, 2008 10:31PM

sounds like a scandal building up.

anyone cares to call WTOP or WP on it?

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: aVOTHUI ()
Date: February 26, 2008 10:33PM

the reason they did what they did - is couse the HOUSING market is in deep shit.

if they reflected real values of the house, and kept the land prices, they would be in real trouble

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Radiophile ()
Date: February 26, 2008 10:52PM

my land value went up less than 5% and the house went down about 15%

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: pizza joe ()
Date: February 26, 2008 11:59PM

You can always appeal the assessment but be prepared to deal with a bunch of pricks. You have to check to see what they used for the assessment. Many times they pick recent sales of homes in your area that are not even close to your type of dwelling. It is just laziness on their part. My experience is they high ball the sales and go for the largest home sold in recent months. A very unfair system but they do hold most of the cards.
The county guy I dealt with was an arrogant sob and hardly spoke English.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Mike Sorce ()
Date: February 27, 2008 12:25AM

aVOTHUI Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> the reason they did what they did - is couse the
> HOUSING market is in deep shit.
>
> if they reflected real values of the house, and
> kept the land prices, they would be in real
> trouble


When you buy a house the selling price includes the land and structure, so I don't think that that's the reason for changing the land/building allocation from (in my case) 30/70 to 50/50. If selling prices and property values went down, why not keep the allocation percentage the same? The total assessment doesn't change.

I am loath to look at conspiracy theories, but there has to be a reason behind this and it was not a simple clerical error. FWIW, I called Sharon Bulova's office this afternoon and the woman I spoke with told me that they had had several calls and were looking into it.

The assessment change notes "Staff reviews the replacement cost of a home or building, less an estimate of accrued depreciation based on the age and condition of property." Someone really needs to explain why 'accrued depreciation' is even a factor here.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Neen ()
Date: February 27, 2008 02:12AM

Mike,
I agree, there has to be a reason that it has changed, county wide. There is NO way that every house on my street went down in value, by $125,000 to 140,000, and every single piece of land went UP by exactly the same amount so that assessments remained exactly the same. Why is our land suddenly SO valuable? It isn't. Why did the county increase the land value across the county? I don't know, but I am certain that there is a reason, one that helps Connelly to minimize loss of revenue.

Please tell us if you figure this out or get information from Bulova's office.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Neen ()
Date: February 27, 2008 02:24AM

deleted



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2008 02:25AM by Neen.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: TheMeeper ()
Date: February 27, 2008 06:08AM

Neen Wrote:
> I wondered the same thing. Is Vienna suddenly filled with pests? What pests?

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/environmental/pests.htm

I'm guessing (?) in alot of neighborhoods they probably try to prevent mosquitos from breeding in places like storm drains, etc. to prevent West Nile, which is fine, I just wish they'd be more specific.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: mrc ()
Date: February 27, 2008 09:30AM

My land value stayed the same at $90k and my building value went down from $273k to $245K

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: AP vs IB ()
Date: February 27, 2008 09:39AM

Using my moniker from the other thread, but I put in a call this morning regarding this issue. My land assessment doubled in price! and the house value went down by half...crazy. The person who answered, and tried to assist me, was also mystified and will have the assesor call me back. My phone is by my side.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Mike Sorce ()
Date: February 27, 2008 11:06AM

AP vs IB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The person who
> answered, and tried to assist me, was also
> mystified and will have the assesor call me back.
> My phone is by my side.


I did the same thing at 8:15am and was transferred twice, but got disconnected both times. Left a message the third time along with sending an e-mail, in addition to yesterday's call, to Bulova's office asking for an explanation.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: walkman ()
Date: February 27, 2008 12:08PM

So I checked out Fairfax County website for assessed values. I looked at Residential Sales in my "Property's Assessment Neighborhood", according to Fairfax's website. The two highest priced comparables are located 6.24 miles away from me. How is that a comparable? They have twice the land (we are NOW assessed the same...mine went up $70K while theirs went up 25K) and twice the building size.

I live in a densely populated area, as I am sure most of you also do, and the assessor could not find a closer comparable? It does not make sense!

Thanks for letting me vent

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: SMP ()
Date: February 27, 2008 12:39PM

This is my theory on HOW FFX Cty is screwing all of us:

Let's say it's a 500K assessment:
2007 300K house 200K land = total assessment 500K
2008 100K house 400K land - total assessment 500K

Joe Smith sees that all his neighbors who have the same lot (same per $ land assessment) went up irrationally the same- so as long as everyone is assessed the same and his total assessment (taxes) did not go up for 2008- he shrugs it off as stupid illogical fairfax county.

Let's say in two years- 2010, properties go back up to "normal"- fairfax county can go increase the land 15% - and not even bother too much with the house. THEN nobody can argue since they do 15% to everyone just the same. Meanwhile, if they try to split it between land and houses- almost everyone will argue on the house- like they can't just say all houses are now 7% more- every neighbor will argue that the other one updated theirs- and so on- with land- "everyone has to shut up"

So- perfect timing for FFX Cty to increase the land- when the values are low now- in anticipation of a HUGE increase in a few years when the real estate market bounces back- where we will all be sheep just lining up paying for it. We need to argue NOW.

What do you all think of this theory?

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: SMP ()
Date: February 27, 2008 01:17PM

Adding another thought- imagine a neighbor to the 400K land and 100K house, they tear down and build a new house- can you imagine the bucks FFX cty can now make off any new home construction or addition that increases the value to the house?

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: jb ()
Date: February 27, 2008 01:27PM

Got the same thing here. House dropped by 120k, land went up by 90k When I bought in 2000, the land was 80k. Now it is apparently 272k??

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Harry Beaver ()
Date: February 27, 2008 02:59PM

DID ANYONE RECEIVE A CALL BACK FROM THE COUNTY????

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Roy Coffee ()
Date: February 27, 2008 03:45PM

Just some more of Fairfax slight of hand. A few years back they would brag about lowering the tax rate while raising the assessments. You actually ended up paying more each year. Then the lowered assessements and raised the rate.

Same difference you always pay more. Now they say the price of homes is dropping so they lower the home value but raise the land value. Again more taxes paid.

If it was fair there is no way land value would be going up. Builders are not buying land due to the slow down so how is the value going up?

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: AP vs IB ()
Date: February 27, 2008 04:20PM

Mike Sorce Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> AP vs IB Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The person who
> > answered, and tried to assist me, was also
> > mystified and will have the assesor call me
> back.
> > My phone is by my side.
>
>
> I did the same thing at 8:15am and was transferred
> twice, but got disconnected both times. Left a
> message the third time along with sending an
> e-mail, in addition to yesterday's call, to
> Bulova's office asking for an explanation.


I received a call back. Essentially they are looking at land when they haven't truly looked at before, primarily due to the number of people (at least in my area) who are tearing down the old ramblers (my neighborhood is comprised of ramblers built right after WWII..mine is a single level built in '48) and putting up huge homes. Somehow that wasn't previously accounted for. The only thing to do is look at home sales in your area and appeal if you see a discrepancy. I saw right away that homes were selling about 75,000 - $100,000 lower than what mine was appraised for. My home appraisel equals homes with basements, but not single levels like mine with same land acreage...so I am following up with the appeal process. The appraiser who called back told me that without looking at comparable lots/homes and sale prices, you won't be able to appeal. In other words, just because they have looked at land values differently doesn't mean you can file an appeal. There is also no guarantee that my appeal will go through, but in my mind it is worth trying.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Kiev ()
Date: February 27, 2008 04:22PM

please keep us posted

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Mike Sorce ()
Date: February 27, 2008 06:11PM

AP vs IB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I received a call back. Essentially they are
> looking at land when they haven't truly looked at
> before, primarily due to the number of people (at
> least in my area) who are tearing down the old
> ramblers (my neighborhood is comprised of ramblers
> built right after WWII..mine is a single level
> built in '48) and putting up huge homes. Somehow
> that wasn't previously accounted for. The only
> thing to do is look at home sales in your area and
> appeal if you see a discrepancy. I saw right away
> that homes were selling about 75,000 - $100,000
> lower than what mine was appraised for. My home
> appraisel equals homes with basements, but not
> single levels like mine with same land
> acreage...so I am following up with the appeal
> process. The appraiser who called back told me
> that without looking at comparable lots/homes and
> sale prices, you won't be able to appeal. In
> other words, just because they have looked at land
> values differently doesn't mean you can file an
> appeal. There is also no guarantee that my appeal
> will go through, but in my mind it is worth
> trying.

OK, so what about a neighborhood like mine, Fairfax Club Estates, which is about 23 years old with .25-3 acre lots? We have a lot of people making upgrades, but no one is tearing down their house. What you describe really doesn't make sense to me, but if it is true I would expect the county to issue some sort of press release since it appears to affect almost everyone.

It's not like the tax rate on land and buildings is different, so why the big change? The revenue is the same no matter how they allocate it, but they have suddenly devalued my home (the physical building) by roughly a third. There has to be something behind this and now I really want to know what it is.

Looking at it another way, my lot is .21 acres with an assessed value of $275K. Does this mean that an acre of R-3/R-4 land is "worth" $1.3 million?

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: SMP ()
Date: February 27, 2008 06:24PM

Mike- read my theory above and let me know what you think.. I'll start looking up some assessments in Mclean or great falls and see how that land measures up..

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: AP vs IB ()
Date: February 27, 2008 06:28PM

Mike Sorce Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> OK, so what about a neighborhood like mine,
> Fairfax Club Estates, which is about 23 years old
> with .25-3 acre lots? We have a lot of people
> making upgrades, but no one is tearing down their
> house. What you describe really doesn't make
> sense to me, but if it is true I would expect the
> county to issue some sort of press release since
> it appears to affect almost everyone.
>
> It's not like the tax rate on land and buildings
> is different, so why the big change? The revenue
> is the same no matter how they allocate it, but
> they have suddenly devalued my home (the physical
> building) by roughly a third. There has to be
> something behind this and now I really want to
> know what it is.
>
> Looking at it another way, my lot is .21 acres
> with an assessed value of $275K. Does this mean
> that an acre of R-3/R-4 land is "worth" $1.3
> million?

It doesn't really make sense to me either, and I forgot to mention that he said they are updating the website to discuss the changes and why they were made. In my neighborhood by the way only two homes sold in the past few years have been purhcased by people who actually tore down the old home, the majority have just simply been sold, with perhaps some minor upgrades later on, so even as he was telling me his explanation, when I said "only two have done that" he kind of was quiet, and said he wished a written explanation had gone out. I may not be doing his explanation justice either, but essentially the gist was what I conveyed.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Neen ()
Date: February 27, 2008 09:13PM

Land is the ONE thing that doesn't change in value. Land closer in has always been worth more. Houses in McLean cost more, not because it costs more to build a house in McLean, but because the land is worth more due to proximity to the city. It costs the same to build a house in McLean as it would cost to build the same house in Sterling. It's the location of the land that matters. An acre in Mclean is worth more than an acre in Sterling. The building of the house on that land doesn't change, work crews, building supplies, appliances, are going to be the same in either location.

Also, people don't buy houses separate from the land. They buy houses ON a lot, ON land. For the county to say they just now realized that land, all over Fairfax county, is worth more, and houses worth less, is ridiculous. It's the house ON the land that people buy, based on the location. Location doesn't change, therefore land value doesn't change much either. House values change depending on what house is built on that land, land location doesn't change so land value doesn't change nearly as much as house values.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Neen ()
Date: February 27, 2008 09:18PM

>>>>Looking at it another way, my lot is .21 acres with an assessed value of $275K. Does this mean that an acre of R-3/R-4 land is "worth" $1.3 million?<<<

My lot is the same size as your's, but now valued at $375,000. Last year it was worth $250,000. What changed in one year? Nothing, other than houses, with their lots, selling for less.

If you can put 4 McMansions on an acre of the land, and it's in McLean, Vienna, or Great Falls, then yes, it is worth over well a million. If it's in Annanndale, or Sterling, perhaps not. If you can put up high rise condos, it's worth FAR more.

Location, Location, Location and Zoning, Zoning, Zoning. But there is nothing that can justify such increases in land value over the last year, without zoning changes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2008 09:24PM by Neen.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Perplexed in Annandale ()
Date: February 27, 2008 09:56PM

Neen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you can put 4 McMansions on an acre of the
> land, and it's in McLean, Vienna, or Great Falls,
> then yes, it is worth over well a million. If
> it's in Annanndale, or Sterling, perhaps not.

So why did my 1/3 acre R-3 lot in Annandale go from $183K last year to $338K this year?

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Kiev ()
Date: February 27, 2008 09:56PM

Based on equalization changes, the mean assessed value (i.e., on average, County-wide)
of most single family-detached homes for 2008 is $617,541, down -3.12%. This group of
properties makes up 71.2% of the residential equalization property value in the County.



dayaaam not bad

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Just me ()
Date: February 27, 2008 10:35PM

I live in Burke Centre and as far as I know they will not allow you to tear down a home and build a bigger one. So using the countys logic that I could tear down an older home and put up a larger one does not work here.

My home went down 100k in value the land went up 100k in value. A total wash for me when my home value was actually dropping this past year.

As far as the "pest control" I think that is some kind of surcharge to keep down the number of liberal democrats on the county board.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Neen ()
Date: February 28, 2008 12:57AM

Perplexed in Annandale Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Neen Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > If you can put 4 McMansions on an acre of the
> > land, and it's in McLean, Vienna, or Great
> Falls,
> > then yes, it is worth over well a million. If
> > it's in Annanndale, or Sterling, perhaps not.
>
> So why did my 1/3 acre R-3 lot in Annandale go
> from $183K last year to $338K this year?

I am as puzzled by this as everyone else. I have NO clue how our land suddenly became SOOOO valuable. Just think how much your land would be worth in McLean. :)

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Neen ()
Date: February 28, 2008 01:23AM

The last question on this page explains why all of our land is worth more and our houses worth less:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dta/realestate_faq.htm

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Mike Sorce ()
Date: February 28, 2008 08:41AM

Neen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The last question on this page explains why all of
> our land is worth more and our houses worth less:
> http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dta/realestate_faq.ht
> m


I am willing to accept this as a one-time adjustment and move on, but I am still bothered by the fact that they seemingly made a big adjustment for accumulated depreciation in one year and I am trying to get my arms around what would have happened if this had been taking place on a straight line basis over the years (I am not an accountant, so the method may be wrong).

I noticed that the word 'equalization' is used quite a bit and was wondering if someone could explain what this means.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: pgens ()
Date: February 28, 2008 08:54AM

Mike Sorce Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I noticed that the word 'equalization' is used
> quite a bit and was wondering if someone could
> explain what this means.

It means Gerry Connelly is trying to make your 2008 tax equal to last year's, despite housing values entering free fall.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: taxpayer- driving the house off the l ()
Date: February 28, 2008 10:35AM

Since FX dumped the value into land how does that affect property insurance ?
Homeowners is expensive and if FX says the building is only worth 200,000 and the insurer says it costs 300,000 to rebuild if it burns down?

What about the poster whose building went down to $10,000? I guess he can't drive it off the lot like a USED minivan. How would somebody in that position get property insurance for the structure?

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Mike Sorce ()
Date: February 28, 2008 11:10AM

taxpayer- driving the house off the l Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Since FX dumped the value into land how does that
> affect property insurance ?
> Homeowners is expensive and if FX says the
> building is only worth 200,000 and the insurer
> says it costs 300,000 to rebuild if it burns
> down?
>
> What about the poster whose building went down to
> $10,000? I guess he can't drive it off the lot
> like a USED minivan. How would somebody in that
> position get property insurance for the structure?


From the last line of the FAQ (referenced above by Neen):

"Keep in mind that the house assessment does not equal the cost to replace a house. For assessment purposes, the improvement value reflects years of normal depreciation. For insurance purposes, your insurance company would generally use their own estimate of what it would cost to rebuild your home today."

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: pgens ()
Date: February 28, 2008 12:08PM

And often their assessment isn't right... my insurance company hadn't changed that value much over the course of ten years and I knew it wasn't right. I had them up it which increased my premium ten bucks a year, but you don't want to be stuck with undercoverage.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: gesoffen ()
Date: February 28, 2008 01:28PM

They're just making up for the 4 or 5 years they were always WAY under on the assessments. Don't you remember when all the home sellers were complaining that the county assessments were 10-20% LESS than what they were marketing and selling their homes for. They claimed that, in the early stages of the housing boom anyway, the assessments were hurting their sales prices.

Then everyone went crazy and bought without paying attention to assessments, inspections, mortgage rates, HOA bylaws or any of those other pesky details.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: WashPost ()
Date: February 28, 2008 11:35PM


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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Suburbanite ()
Date: February 29, 2008 03:50PM

The article basically claims that they are 'catching up' with actual land values and that the land values had basically been stagnant for several years. Which is bull.

My land value increased the year before last 20K, the year before that 42K and the year before that 50K. There was no need to 'catch up' with land values. I have almost an acres in west Springfield. They now value it at 325K.

But less than a mile away, on the same street and in the same neighborhood, one parcel of county owned land is only valued at about 155K per acre. And the adjacent piece of county owned land, exactly the same size is only 87K per acre.

Something stinks.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: vry ()
Date: February 29, 2008 04:48PM

This was quoted in another thread-
" but what I see from this new style of assessing property is it protects the county by making most of the assessment value in the land because no matter what happens to property value (housing), the county will still be able to get their big bucks because they say the value is in the land. Also, as property values for homes returns they will be in good shape to increase their assessments adding it to the homes or structures themselves. It's a win win for the county & the consumer,again, is at their mercy. Disgusting."

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: The Economist ()
Date: February 29, 2008 06:58PM

it's a sham, whatever it is.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Leafer ()
Date: February 29, 2008 09:25PM

Here are two reasons why Fairfax might want to put more value on the land than the structure:

1. For tear-downs, they collect more taxes for the year or two (sometimes three) that there is no structure with a certificate of occupancy present.

2. Increases the holding cost to the owner of vacant land, encouraging building sooner, which increases the taxes collected.

Seems like not a lot of number crunching went into this... everyone on our street has the same new land value regardless of lot size.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: approximation ()
Date: February 29, 2008 09:31PM

Leafer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Seems like not a lot of number crunching went into
> this... everyone on our street has the same new
> land value regardless of lot size.


probably about right - the value is in the right to build a house rather than the square footage. Given that the shortage is in slots, people will put up the house they can afford on any slot they can get that's about right.

given the strategy, not a bad approximation

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Mike Sorce ()
Date: March 01, 2008 08:45AM

Well, that didn't take long...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022903978.html?hpid=topnews

Everyone may not agree with this, but I have to give credit to the BoS for acting quickly on this. I may have been one of the first to complain and received a detailed personal response from both Sharon Bulova and Keven Greenlief on Thursday. What amazes me about this is that the change was never vetted by the BoS at any time and DTA just thought that homeowners would simply look at the top line assessment and be done with it. Gerry Connelley correctly points out that it does not pass the "giggle" test.

What really bothers me about this now is that the DTA needs to spend money the county really doesn't have to redo this when it could have taken a more reasoned approach in the beginning and avoided the entire problem.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: pgens ()
Date: March 01, 2008 09:48AM

I love how the manager of the assessing department assumed people would just look at the top-line amount and not notice the building/land breakout. Come on, this is an educated populace here. Things may have been different wherever he came from, but many people actually read stuff here.

Anyway, they say in the article that the assessment totals wouldn't change, just the ratio of building to land.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2008 09:48AM by pgens.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: duh ()
Date: March 01, 2008 04:57PM

pgens Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> snip. Anyway, they say in the article that the
> assessment totals wouldn't change, just the ratio
> of building to land.


So what difference does it make?

We'll be out the same coin regardless....unless they raise the tax rate, which I believe they will.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: Rosco ()
Date: March 01, 2008 11:09PM

"He said a property owner's overall assessment would not change. The county will adjust only the allocations of value between land and home."

Still the same BS. How about they just fire the clown who thought this scam up in the first place. connelly is running around telling anyone stupid enough to listen he had no idea things were being done this way. Yet he acknowledges he received his own assessment and was puzzled so how could he not know.

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Re: Real Estate Assessment Question
Posted by: TheMeeper ()
Date: March 20, 2008 01:42PM

FWIW-- the revised property assessments are going to be mailed out today. Just in time to spoil our weekend.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=722&sid=1369314

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