County Assessor Value- Could some one please explain
This my be common sense to some but I have a question about the county assessors values.
There are 3 columns on my local CA site. First one is "fair cash", second is "not capped" and third is "assessed". What do the three columns mean?
My example I am wondering about has the "fair cash" and "not capped" value at $229,000 but the "assessed" value at $27,000. What's the deal with the huge difference there? And if the assessed value is its "current condition" price, is it safe to say that once I fix it up it will be worth $229,000?
Any body familiar with any of this? Thanks in advance.
Originally posted by Ryan Edwards:
And if the assessed value is its "current condition" price, is it safe to say that once I fix it up it will be worth $229,000?
I can't speak specifically to the terms used in your area. I suspect part of it is that homeowners have their tax increases "Capped" and that is probably part of the difference in numbers.
A far as what it is worth - ignore the assessment. Tax assessors are very poor at getting to the real value. Tax assessments are often off significantly and cannot be used at all for investment purposes other than to estimate your taxes.
In Baltimore City tax assessments can be off by as much as 300% (that is not a typo)
Ned; thanks for the info.
Does any one know what the three categories mean? Can any one break it down?
Best to call your county tax assessor and ask. Or look at their web site. This stuff varies state to state and even county to county. We don't have those three numbers here. Just an assessment, which may or may not be related to market value. At a guess, I'd say "capped" is some sort of maximum value determined by some law. But it should be simple enough to just call the assessor and ask.
What county is this, anyway? Perhaps someone has specifically dealt in that county and would have an idea.
Like in my area, I'm sure that your "assessed value" is just a derivative of the cash value of the property, and its only purpose is for computing the property taxes by being multiplied by a "millage rate" or some similar tax rate. So it's completely meaningless, as is the cash/market value on the assessor site. In my area, they compute something called "taxable value" that is 35% of the fair market value, and property taxes are computed from taxable value. Call your assessor's office if you want to unpack the calculation.
The assessor uses an automated valuation tool (done by a computer with no distinction for condition or level of finishes in a house), so it has all the flaws of zillow.com values, with the additional problem of even being as much as several years old and utilizing even cruder software and mass appraisal techniques.