I am going to lose it if I hear another seller tell me they want $65,000 for their $15,000 property because that what the auditor said it was worse.

Nothing in the neighborhood has sold for more than $30k in the last 3 years, yet the auditor values every house in the neighborhood at $55k and above.

Although it is pretty funny when they say "Well that's what Clarence Mingo said it was worth"...  Clarence Mingo is our auditor, but they say it like they hired this professional to come assess their property. Lol

John:

Is your "Auditor" the local tax assessor and these are tax assessment values folks are quoting?

While I agree tax assessments have little association with the market value of a property, I do find them to be an indicator on the financial appetite and health of the municipality/city in which the property resides.

Yes, sorry if I had the terms wrong.

I typically only find large variances in the bad areas of town.  Once you get into $100k values and up they seem to be more accurate.

I was wondering myself if those were accurate. I have looked at a few and saw that the comps in a neighborhood were not very close to the tax assessments. 

Tax` assessments can have little to do with market value, each are arrived at differently.

Some areas assess taxes based on sales, sales are public and thereafter states usually dictate inflation rates to be followed, sold for X dollars 5 years ago, plus inflation yields an assessment, these may be close to market.

Assessments are generally made on what is called a "block assessment" or "block valuation". These look more to valuations based on average square footage, land size, age and compared to larger population sizes of housing inventory. They aren't based on an individual property valuation like an appraisal of an estimate of market value. A $300K home in the same block as a 150K home can effect the assessment of both properties as averages are utilized.

Market values are found as to a specific property compared to similar properties that have sold. It's apples and oranges.

Here, assessed values are about 20% lower than market generally, but you can have a property that is in poor condition or has other influences to value that can have a lower market value than its assessed valuation.

Valuations can be challenged and proving market values by an appraisal can require an assessment to be changed under state law. We certainly use those to have assessments lowered, never heard of anyone asking for a higher assessment!  LOL  :) 

@Bill Gulley  thanks for the info.