Be careful what you ask for
Property owners on the Baldwin County coast are complaining about high property tax bills in a period of falling real estate values.
County officials have received an estimated 13,500 property tax appraisals challenges as of Friday’s deadline, many from condo owners. Officials expect to receive more appeals post-marked by that deadline, boosting the total closer to 14,000.
There has been nearly universal calls for the state to move back to four year property tax reappraisals after Gov. Riley made them annual. Not surprisingly, our legislature – despite both parties claiming to support the four year cycle – has done nothing.
But now with property values falling I bet everyone is going to LOVE annual reappraisals. Just think how frustrated you would be if your house was appraised in 2007 and subsequently dropped 5% in value every year for the next four years. You would still be paying taxes based on a much higher assessment.
Now home values traditionally go up, so I would still prefer to see a four year reappraisal period. It’s just worthwhile to keep in mind the ramifications of our decisions.
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Brian…your point about the sudden value of annual appraisals in a declining property marked is not lost on me. I have been telling folks that since this entire issue surfaced. The reason we now have annual appraisals of property is not because the Governor just wanted to do it, but because of all the lawsuits over unequal treatment. The legislative clamor to go to 4 year appraisal cycles is always for naught as these same folks who talk a good game know the legislation will be killed by the teacher union.
Might see the AEA push a return to 4 year appraisals as a fix for declining property values. My main objection to such a return is the insincerity of its proponents. They (like many of the constitution reformers in the legislature) talk a better game than they execute.
I move to AL from Northern Virginia in 2004. Our house newly built in 1999 cost us 199K. It was assessed at 350K when we moved. In 2005 it was assessed at about 420K. In 2008 it was assessed at 330K and houses on our street were selling for 270K. There are advantages in annual assessments, of course in VA they can set the tax rate every year and raised and lowered it as assessments went up and down to make a certain amount of revenue.