Property owners in Utah (well…Davis County at least) should be receiving real property assessment notices this weekend. Take a look at yours to see if it is correct.Â
If your assessment is even a little bit off I recommend appealing. I’ve seen mine already and plan on sending the appeal form in as soon as I get my notice! As always, I’m happy to assist my fellow bloghive denizens in dealing with property tax appeals or answering questions about the process. Leave a comment or email me!
Major Kudos to Obi Won Liberali for his excellent post on property tax issues in Utah. In his comments section he wrote that he’s “taking a swim in Jeremy’s pond” by posting on the issue. Wrong. His post is a far better analysis than I’d be able to come up with.
It will be interesting to see how things go when assessment notices are sent out in Davis County this year. The southern part of the county was re-appraised last year and homeowners cried bloody murder at the tax increases they received. The assessor’s office has re-visited values in most of the rest of the county this year and tax levies are being decreased across the board. It will be interesting to see how the decreased levies and increased assessments effect the newly re-appraised cities and neighborhoods mostly located in the northern portion of the county. I’ll post again when more information is available.
Yesterday’s Standard-Examiner editorialized in favor of disclosing all records (sale prices) for real estate transactions in Utah. Utah is currently one of only eight states in the nation that are non-disclosure states. The S-E’s reasoning that county assessors can more fairly determine market values for all properties if disclosure is the law is right on.
Under Utah’s current system high end properties aren’t fairly assessed (they’re often extremely low) because most property sales that could be used for comparison purposes in appraising these parcels aren’t sold through the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) maintained by Utah’s Realtors. This database is currently the only available source for real estate sales data. Until our legislature ends non-disclosure and breaks the Board of Realtor’s stranglehold on nearly all real estate market data, middle class and poor Utahns will continue to take on a substantial share of the tax burden that rightfully belongs to some of Utah’s wealthiest residents.
Thank you Standard-Examiner. Non-disclosure in Utah isn’t yet truly threatened but your voice definitely helps.
Full Disclosure: I am currently employed by the Davis County Assessor as a Certified Residential Appraiser. This blog post represents my own opinion only.
Today’s Deseret Morning News editorial rightly cautions lawmakers considering property tax policy revisions in the upcoming legislative session. Many of the changes proposed by various lawmakers could cause far more harm than good. Any attempt to assess residential parcels using a measurement other than current fair market value will create inequities as bad or worse than those we have seen this past year. Too many of the proposed changes would alter this method of assessment and would result in an unfair distribution of the tax burden in most of Utah’s counties (the potential inequities favor wealthy property owners over average home owners in nearly every case).
There are obvious problems with the current system that need to be fixed. One example of a very positive change that should be considered is the proposal to require counties to assess all parcels every year instead of only assessing each city within the county every five years. Many of the property tax inequities which occurred in Davis County this year wouldn’t have happened under this policy.*
My only disagreement with the Deseret Morning News stems from their opposition to Sen. Neiderhauser’s proposal requiring voter approval of any tax increases above and beyond levels of inflation. As a resident of Davis County where we’ve been hit with several foolish tax increases over the past few years I think this proposal deserves some discussion. This policy would put more power in the hands of voters instead of the politicians who sometimes seem to pay more attention to narrow partisan interests than they do to the needs of county residents.
*It should be noted that Davis County is making every effort to implement this policy even if the state doesn’t require them to do it. James Ivey, the Davis County Assessor (and my boss), has asked for and received additional funding from the Davis County Commission to pay for the personnel needed to complete this huge task for tax year 2008.
Dave Fletcher put up a couple of great posts today on the topic of mortgage fraud. This is a growing problem in Utah that I have seen happen far more often than it should be happening in our state. The most immediately beneficial solution to problems with mortgage fraud would be for Utah to become a full-disclosure state on real estate transactions. (As a side note this change would also greatly help with solving many of the property tax assessment inequities that plague our state.)
Currently when property changes hands in Utah there is no requirement that any of the terms of the sale be disclosed. Any sales that aren’t done through a Realtor, and therefore are never entered into the multiple listing service Realtors use as a database for listings and sales; remain a mystery to everyone other than the parties in the transactions. Utah’s non-disclosure status makes us a prime target for bad guys who want to perpetrate scams or money laundering. It is just so much easier to get away with illegal activity in our state than it is in most others.
Getting good anti-fraud legislation through our legislature has been incredibly difficult. I argue that the main reason for this difficulty is that a large number of our legislators are either Realtors or they take lots of campaign money from the Utah Board of Realtors. This powerful business interest benefits greatly from its monopoly on market data and they are loathe to allow any changes to the way the real estate business is regulated in Utah.
Here is a presentation put together a couple years ago by the FBI and the Division of Real Estate for our legislature encouraging them to make the change I argue for in this post along with others to bring an end to mortgage fraud in Utah (thanks again to Mr. Fletcher for providing the link). Here’s hoping the legislature begins to give this problem the attention it deserves.
The Tribune had an article today about some people who’ve decided to advocate for a Utah version of Proposition 13. Here are 3 quick reasons why Prop 13 is a stupid idea for Utah…then I’ve got to get to bed:
1. Utah’s “Truth in Taxation” law works. “In the twenty years since Truth-in-Taxation, property tax revenues have grown at a 5.4% rate, equal to the combined inflation and population growth rate of 5.4%”(UTA). For more information on Truth-in-Taxation Check out UTA’s blog (yes…from time to time they do take a break from their relentless voucher blogging to advocate for things that are actually useful!)
2. Prop 13 would create the most inequitable distribution of the property tax burden possible. Growing families would be penalized with a much more substantial share of the tax burden than would be fair. It is bad policy to stick the largest share of the tax burden with those who are typically least able to pay.
3. Utah is a non-disclosure state and is likely to stay that way. Realtors benefit from the fact that market data on the sale of real property is not tracked by government. Utah’s non-disclosure law in essence grants Realtors a monopoly on real property sales data and they won’t easily give that up (Realtors practically own our legislature). Without disclosure of sales data to government there isn’t a way for a prop 13 like law to work. (In the near future the topic of Utah’s non-disclosure status will be covered in much more detail on this blog)
I love houses that are different. Here’s a great one. It is a water tower that has been converted into a seemingly cozy home. Very cool but I’d sure hate to have to appraise it!
H/T Boing Boing
Doug Wright and Bob Longsberry both spent time on their respective radio shows this morning trying to whip their listeners into a frenzy over property taxes. Wright was especially bad since his demagoguery was absent any understanding of how property taxes work in our state and what a bad idea something like California’s Proposition 13 is for any state.
Major props (for the first time on this site) to Sen. Curt Bramble for attempting to inject some reason into the discussion. He called in after several other irate callers and attempted to explain how Truth-In-Taxation works. It all went over Wright’s head but it was still nice to hear at least one person on that show today who had the first clue about how things actually work. Thank you Senator!
UPDATE 08/03/07 11:10
I am employed by the Davis County Assessor’s office and answer to Mr. Jim Ivie, the Davis County Assessor, for all I do in his name. Today on KSL and reportedly KNRS a Davis County resident and taxpayer in Bountiful claimed she was brushed off by the county and told that if she didn’t want to pay higher taxes she should sell her house. No one in my office would have said this. Mr. Ivie has been very clear about the importance of treating the public with respect and dignity. I am the appraiser in our office who spoke to the person making these claims. We spoke for more than 30 minutes about her assessment and what her options were. At no time did I tell her there was nothing we could do and in fact I advised her that she could come into our office and I’d personally help her fill out her appeal paperwork. I finished the call by giving her my full name and direct phone number so she could call me any time she needed assistance.
I don’t speak for the Davis County Assessor on this blog but when someone slander’s my office after I’ve put so much work in to helping them deal with the increase in their assessment I have to speak out. KSL should have gotten both sides before running with this woman’s sympathetic but not entirely true story.
END UPDATE
The Ogden Standard Examiner took this photo of me on the job. How embarassing.
Check out their editorial on property taxes in Davis County.
You should also check out UTA’s latest post on property taxes and how/why they increase. Their point about reassessment especially applies to South Davis County this year.
I’m still learning about how things work in Utah.
About a year ago I was driving around Northern Virginia working on an appraisal. As I typically do when driving during the day I was listening to the local talk radio show. (I know…a topic for a different post most likely…I’m addicted to local talk radio).
The topic for discussion was the huge increase in property taxes for residents of Fairfax County, VA. Real property values in that county between 2000 and 2005 increased at a rate of around 20% per year and so the amount residents paid in property taxes increased at about the same rates even though the actual tax rate remained the same. This meant that the increasing tax bills were pricing many people out of their own homes. It was a big political issue for people in all of northern Virginia.
For the past year or so northern Utah is experiencing similar growth in property values to that experienced by Northern Virginia in the first half of the 2000’s. Is there going to be the same problem with increasing taxes?
Here is a very interesting Deseret News article from last Monday that explains how property taxes in Utah are done differently than in most states.
Tax revenues are held at their current level no matter what property values are. So rising property values for Utahns actually mean lower property tax rates. The Deseret News article does a great job explaining how all this works and what it means for property owners in Utah. Props go to Doug Smeath the author of the piece.
In Prince William County a million dollars buys this worthy entry in the Delightfully Ugly Homes compendium:
In Old Town Alexandria a million dollars buys this more modest (and much less offensive looking) property:
As part of my new goal to keep the webpage updated you’re probably going to see lots of posts on houses and housing markets…its what I do now and I think its interesting…also…I really enjoy finding the good ugly houses that can be posted here. I consider it my form of revenge on the rotten architects who plague us with these monstrosities.
A while ago I posted a picture of the most strikingly ugly house I’ve ever seen. I decided when I saw that house that my new mission in life is to build a collection of aesthetically obscene houses…houses that are so ugly that some record of their ugliness just has to be kept so the offensive house isn’t lost to posterity when someone with some taste buys the home. I don’t include houses whose ugliness is caused because of physical deterioration or homes that are ugly because they are so typical (all houses with nothing but pastel colored vinyl siding on them). I look for houses that are in good physical condition but nasty to look at because their owners have defiled decorated them in a way that makes them uniquely hard to look at.
Early in December Lisa drove past this house when she was taking pictures of comparable home sales for an appraisal she was working on. I’m thankful she got a picture of it…even though it wasn’t on her list. Who wouldn’t like the combination of medieval castle and huge 70’s style solar panels!
Here is a house Lisa found today that she knew I would want to include in the collection.
I wonder how much time this homeowner spent painting every individual brick on this house in alternating colors. Well here are the results of his work. Thankfully there is a white ford obstructing much of our photo.
I’m going to try to get some more pictures up of entertainingly ugly homes. If any readers find houses worthy of the collection please email them to me! Remember…I’ve got lots of pictures of homes that are in disrepair or that are ugly because they are excessively ordinary. I want the aggressively ugly houses. If I can build the collection enough we’ll start a new web page dedicated to these fun homes.
Click below to see an UPDATE!!!
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I’m generally skeptical about home owners associations. I want the freedom to be able to do what I want with my home and property without having the busy bodies of the neighborhood get on my case. We don’t have a home owners association in my neighborhood and for the most part I’m glad.
Today while driving around in Stafford County Virginia I came across a good argument for HOAs.
This picture doesn’t do the house justice. It was a truely ugly specimen. I’m sure there are people who think it would be nice to live in a ranch home with 6 funky chimneys and that lovely brick job and I’m glad we live in a country where they have the freedom to do that…but I’m sure glad I don’t live across the street from that guy. I’d hate to have to see that monstrocity every morning when I go outside.
