Comments on: Lovingston : Did You Get Your Property Tax Assessment? Ohhhh, thought so!!!

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:06:04 +0000

If the goal is to assess real estate at present true market value, we obviously need reassessments more often than every 5 years. Charlottesville does it annually. Based on the statement from WINGATE AND ASSOCIATES in your article, the assessments for 2008 are based on data from 2006 and the first half of 2007. These times reflect the end of a housing boom. We are now in a bust and the 2008 assessments do not reflect that. We went from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market in that amount of time. My source for that statement is the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors web site. Their quarterly assessment of the area’s housing market can be found at
http://www.caar.com/caar/buyersandsellers
There is absolutely no way I could sell my property for as much as it has been assessed at by the county.

By: Tommy

Tommy — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:36:14 +0000

Thanks for chiming in Jack, Sally, Sean, and Kevin. Good points!

We have been told the assessors office has been very kind to people calling, some tell us they have had substantial decreases in their original assessment after calling or meeting.

It appears much of the property was not assessed correctly. One property owner was assessed at full value when the majority of his acreage was a flood zone it could never be developed. He got an adjustment after calling. So it does appear they are being reasonable, at least initially.

It will be interesting to see what the board of supervisors sets the actual tax rate at in a future meeting.
NCL

By: Jack and Sally Evans

Jack and Sally Evans — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:04:22 +0000

We’ve seen this all before, having lived in southern California in the late seventies when families by the thousands were being forced from their homes due to obscene assessments and out of control property taxes.

A tax revolt ensued and Proposition 13 was overwhelmingly passed and became part of the state constitution, restricting the government’s ability to adjust assessments and taxes except at the time of sale of real property. As I recall, one’s taxes could go up by no more than one percent(1%) per year, regardless of the assessed value of your property.

Sounds like it’s time for that approach here, don’t you think?

By: Sean Korte

Sean Korte — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:05:53 +0000

Now I completely understand why Nelson is called a “sleeping” or “bedroom” county…no one can actually afford to live here unless they work SOMEWHERE ELSE! I feel deeply sorry for the folks that have lived here for decades and because of the wealth of some, are being forced to be taxed to the hilt. Is it just me or does this remind readers of Robin Hood?

I hope the county does as promised….reduce the tax rate so this isn’t as ugly as it currently appears.

By: Kevin Rose

Kevin Rose — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:04:23 +0000

I’m thinking the assessments were previously under valued, but now they went above the actual selling price. I’m not sure they compared apples to apples when taking what a neighbor got for their property and what you can get for your property. That is not a true assessment, just an estimate. They were surprized to hear that I had river front property that was 90% in flood zone.