Property Tax Appeals… The Unfortunate Gift that Unfortunately Keeps Giving
Topic: A Tax to Grind, Property Tax Appeals, Property Tax Valuation
Thursday, 09 December 2010 by David H. LeVan
Loading ...Who has gotten a really ugly sweater for Christmas? A hideous wall hanging? Re-gifted fruit cake? Pants that were too big…. Or worse, too small? Or maybe it was that “whatamacallit” that you simply couldn’t see yourself ever using? According to my intensive research on Cha Cha and Yahoo! Answers, it appears that somewhere between 21-40% of us will be returning Christmas gifts this year. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get it right in the first place? No ugly gifts…..no duplicate gifts…..clothes that fit perfectly? Bad Christmas gift
There is lots of talk about the large number of property tax appeals being processed from coast to coast. Property values have plummeted in the past couple of years and assessments have not followed suit. Because of this, many jurisdictions are anticipating the largest year ever in numbers of property tax appeals. Illinois is looking at numbers that have doubled in the past 7 years. New Jersey has almost quadrupled the number of property tax appeals since 2007. Los Angeles HAS quadrupled since 2007. Las Vegas has quadrupled since 2008. Michigan has an appeal backlog that is 8 times larger than 10 years ago.
There are few exceptions to this trend. Miami (Dade County), one of the exceptions to the trend, is expecting a 27% decline in appeals from their high in 2009. This makes me wonder if they’re doing a better job shopping in the first place…. Less ugly sweaters results in less returned Christmas gifts.