Real estate assessments are appraisals — the County ‘ s opinions of value for each parcel of real property in Arlington . Assessments are made according to accepted methods, techniques, and standards of the real estate appraisal and assessment profession.

The 2008 assessment is an estimate of the fair market value as of January 1, 2008.

Residential assessments were based primarily on neighborhood sales occurring from July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007, and further refined using sales occurring in the summer and fall of 2007. The real estate tax rate determines the amount of the tax which is levied on the property. A uniform tax rate for all real property is set by the Arlington County Board.

In layman’s terms – real estate professionals bless the valuations that are based on previous year sales of comparable properties. Now you can argue what is comparable or you could simply take a sample of properties from the same neighborhood, compute the tax assed value per square foot (at the time of sale), subtract a theoretical commission for the broker (say 7% – 3.5% to the buyer’s broker and 3.5% to the seller’s broker) and you will find forecasted valuation range. Now since tax assessments are based on trailing sales statistics of comparable properties, in falling markets like ours, keep in mind the tax assessed value will be higher then a forecasted valuation.

In newer buildings like 1021 we don’t have the luxury or historical info but Lion’s Park and Lion’s Village have been around since the 1930s so we have lots of historical data to analyze.

I do agree that tax assessments are not perfect but they will tell a potential buyer if the seller has based their price on reality or 2005-2006 fiction.

As for Realtors having access to the Seller Subsidy, yes they do.

But first of all, the buyer is the one that is frequently doing research (since they think Realtors are worthless) so they will NOT see the net price after subsidy.

And my guess would be that only 50% of Realtors see the Subsidy. It depends how they have their searches set up. My search results have the subsidy right next to the close price. The default search burys it. So many lower tech agents might not see it.

As for tax assessment tied to closing price, read the link to the blog “Don’t fight your tax assessment.” Yes, you might save $5 a month, but then might lose several thousand.

Frank

You have mentioned in your blog before that realtors have access to the seller subsidy data on a given sale. Wouldn’t a perspective buyer (in the fute) have similar access? This finding would expose the profit. It would expose to future buyers of my house and my neighbors.

Are tax assessment heavily influenced by home sales? If so, I should intend to keep my home purchase as small as possible to pay lower property taxes in the future.

For example, Let’s say the buyer and seller accept $400,000 net. I would adjust it to be $410,000 with $10k back. That way it records for $410k in the tax records.

So yeah sure, it won’t help with your loan, like those putting 3% of 5% down, but it helps with resale.

Email me if you have a specific question.