First let me say that there isn't a reason to not appeal your Georgia property tax unless you know for certain that your value is higher than the assessors tax value. There is a reason why there is a Georgia property tax appeal process and that reason is because the assessors can't be right all the time. As a matter of fact they should only be right some the time. In order to explain this I need to get into how the property tax assessor determines value.
When the tax assessor is trying to determine what the value is in your neighborhood, or for your property type, they have to look at the sales data that is available. For those properties that have recently sold, say in the year 2011, the assessor compares his Georgia property tax value with the sales price. If the tax assessor has enough sales in your neighborhood or for your property type he can make generalizations about values based on this. For example, if on average the assessor's Georgia property tax values are 80% of the sale prices in your neighborhood, and there are sufficient numbers of sales to make this information statistically significant, the assessor may increase all of the Georgia property tax values in the neighborhood by 10% or 15% or even 20% to get the values to where they should be.
In actuality the assessors use the median ratio of assessment to sale price to make decisions on neighborhood wide value changes. They use medians because medians are unaffected by extreme values. Now if the assessor, using this sales information and sale ratios, changes values such that their median sale ratio has an assessed value that is 100% of the sale price, that means that approximately half of the properties will be overvalued and half will be undervalued. This is why the tax assessor can only be right part of the time. It's up to you to decide if you're in that portion of properties that are overvalued or undervalued.
Given the current state of the housing market and what we've been going through for the past several years, there's little chance that the assessors will be raising values in 2012. This same process of comparing Georgia property tax assessments to sale prices can and should be used to reduce Georgia property taxes. If the median sale ratio, the ratio of assessed value to sale price, is 120% this means that the neighborhood or property type is overvalued. The tax assessor should lower all property values within this neighborhood such that the median sale ratio is near 100%. But again, half of the properties would be overvalued and half would be undervalued, even after a big reduction in value.
It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to fight City Hall, or the tax assessor. Just know that the deck is not stacked against you. You have as good a chance of getting your value reduced as your chance of getting no change in your Georgia property tax. It all depends on the neighborhood you're in or the property type you own, what the market data says, and whether you want to put in the time and effort to determine whether or not a Georgia property tax appeal is worth your time. If you don't want to jump through the hoops necessary to get a good result from your Georgia property tax appeal you may want to consider using the assistance of an expert. Here at Fair Assessments we have been helping property taxpayers get their Georgia property taxes reduced for eight years. If you need help getting your Georgia property taxes reduced please contact us.
When the tax assessor is trying to determine what the value is in your neighborhood, or for your property type, they have to look at the sales data that is available. For those properties that have recently sold, say in the year 2011, the assessor compares his Georgia property tax value with the sales price. If the tax assessor has enough sales in your neighborhood or for your property type he can make generalizations about values based on this. For example, if on average the assessor's Georgia property tax values are 80% of the sale prices in your neighborhood, and there are sufficient numbers of sales to make this information statistically significant, the assessor may increase all of the Georgia property tax values in the neighborhood by 10% or 15% or even 20% to get the values to where they should be.
In actuality the assessors use the median ratio of assessment to sale price to make decisions on neighborhood wide value changes. They use medians because medians are unaffected by extreme values. Now if the assessor, using this sales information and sale ratios, changes values such that their median sale ratio has an assessed value that is 100% of the sale price, that means that approximately half of the properties will be overvalued and half will be undervalued. This is why the tax assessor can only be right part of the time. It's up to you to decide if you're in that portion of properties that are overvalued or undervalued.
Given the current state of the housing market and what we've been going through for the past several years, there's little chance that the assessors will be raising values in 2012. This same process of comparing Georgia property tax assessments to sale prices can and should be used to reduce Georgia property taxes. If the median sale ratio, the ratio of assessed value to sale price, is 120% this means that the neighborhood or property type is overvalued. The tax assessor should lower all property values within this neighborhood such that the median sale ratio is near 100%. But again, half of the properties would be overvalued and half would be undervalued, even after a big reduction in value.
It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to fight City Hall, or the tax assessor. Just know that the deck is not stacked against you. You have as good a chance of getting your value reduced as your chance of getting no change in your Georgia property tax. It all depends on the neighborhood you're in or the property type you own, what the market data says, and whether you want to put in the time and effort to determine whether or not a Georgia property tax appeal is worth your time. If you don't want to jump through the hoops necessary to get a good result from your Georgia property tax appeal you may want to consider using the assistance of an expert. Here at Fair Assessments we have been helping property taxpayers get their Georgia property taxes reduced for eight years. If you need help getting your Georgia property taxes reduced please contact us.
