Real estate assessment notices are in the mail

When City Manager Randy Hildebrandt presented his budget proposal nearly two weeks ago, he said reassessments of single-family homes would on average increase by about 1 percent.

[WHAT IS GOING ON]

Look for a rate increase, however.

[Carlos]

Thank goodness the overall assessments are going up. This means that the overworked school teachers and firefighters can get a much deserved raise!

[Curious John]

Good luck with that phone call to the assessor's office. I have spoken to the assessor assigned to my neighborhood and he told me appeals are for errors in the record, like if they added an extra zero to your bill. They are not really for the subjective process of determining value. Sure they use a lot of objective information like sales data and square footage but it all becomes very much the opinion of the assessor when it comes to counting sales data from property that he decides was sold above or below market value. My assessor specifically went down a list of sales and told me that a low one was an inside� job making a sweetheart deal to someone at the bank and that a high one was part of a multi-property scam so it was not the real value. My guess this year is that he will tell me that he did not count the lower sales numbers because in his opinion they should not have sold for that price.

[Henry]

Curious John wrote:

Good luck with that phone call to the assessor's office. I have spoken to the assessor assigned to my neighborhood and he told me appeals are for errors in the record, like if they added an extra zero to your bill. They are not really for the subjective process of determining value. Sure they use a lot of objective information like sales data and square footage but it all becomes very much the opinion of the assessor when it comes to counting sales data from property that he decides was sold above or below market value. My assessor specifically went down a list of sales and told me that a low one was an inside� job making a sweetheart deal to someone at the bank and that a high one was part of a multi-property scam so it was not the real value. My guess this year is that he will tell me that he did not count the lower sales numbers because in his opinion they should not have sold for that price.

Hey Curious John...CUT AND PASTE!?!...we've seen this exact same BS from you before!...is that the best you got. Sounds like the assessor you spoke with did their job well.

[Curious John]

Henry wrote:

<quoted text>
Hey Curious John...CUT AND PASTE!?!...we've seen this exact same BS from you before!...is that the best you got. Sounds like the assessor you spoke with did their job well.

Not the EXACT same and certainly not BS. This is a real problem if you expect to see any fairness in the assessments. Not that it matters. If the assessment truly reflected the market, then we would be complaining about City Council having to raise the rate. It is a lot easier to let the assessors be the bad guys.

[Newport News-Thug City]

In this economic crisis, any amount of an increase is not justified, how about some the over paid leaders of NN cut their pay? Lay a few off ?
Oh yeah, Joe(I will get your money)Frank will have no such thing. I am sure he will come up with some other BS on ways to get more tax dollars in his pocket. JHOe, don't you have more property that you can sell the city and make a killing again, like the wasteful city center ???

[Lee Hall]

"But some houses, mostly moderately priced single-family homes, will again see some increases and others — mostly waterfront properties — will see their values decline."

Looks like the moderate folks will get screwed whille those more affluent catch another break. Change we can count on.