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View Full Version : One of the few times I'm HAPPY something I own has devalued.



x88x
02-09-2011, 12:27 AM
Ok, a little background. As a lot of you probably know by now, I recently bought a house. Nice little ~1500sqft single-story on 1.7 acres (ridiculously huge lot for this area btw :D ). I paid $162,500 for it. Now, unfortunately, the last time the tax appraiser assessed it was in 2007, right at the peak of the real estate bubble. As a result, the assessed tax value was a whopping $352,270! :eek:

Naturally, I appealed it, for the sale price (didn't expect to actually get it that low, but hey, why not try, eh? ;) ), and it was up for reassessment anyway, which helped.

Anyways, I just got the official assessment notice today, and the new assessed tax value is.. $206,000! :D That's going to translate to a $2,237 drop in my yearly taxes! $186 less each month! Hells yeah! :banana:


...they do have it listed at not a principal residence though... *grumblegrumble* ...have to call them tomorrow and get that straightened out...

OvRiDe
02-09-2011, 12:29 AM
nice!

Airbozo
02-09-2011, 11:49 AM
Great!

One thing I like about California property taxes is that they rate the taxes on the sale price in almost every instance. They only re-assess if the property is sold or a major remodel takes place.

Gotta fix that principal residence. If your state allows homeowners exemption, that will drop your taxes even more.

x88x
02-09-2011, 02:44 PM
Gotta fix that principal residence. If your state allows homeowners exemption, that will drop your taxes even more.

IIRC they do offer homeowners exemption, so hopefully it will drop a bit more. Even if it doesn't though, I'm still quite happy with the existing 41.5% drop. :D Afer I posted this thread I looked over the sheet again and noticed that they have a portion of it that says if the 'principal residence' is wrong, fill out this portion and return it. So that'll be going out in the mail tomorrow (forgot to do it this morning). Hmmm, I wonder if I need to tell my mortgage company about this change or if they get a notice too...better call them just to make sure (I do monthly contributions to an escrow account through them for property taxes and homeowner's insurance).

Airbozo
02-09-2011, 03:12 PM
...(I do monthly contributions to an escrow account through them for property taxes and homeowner's insurance).

Same here. Been doing that for the last 17 years and I recommend it to everyone buying a house.

MrGoat
02-13-2011, 03:45 PM
You don't need to expressly notify your mortgage company as they are the ones that get the actual bills for the tax. The problem is however that in most cases Mortgage companies are freakin retarded and it will take 3 or 4 months for them to update your escrow payments appropriatly, even if you do notify them.