Realty Insider Blog

Spring is here and so are the yearly tax assessments. According to the Washington Post assessment values are down slightly this year. Not a surprise as I have seen more and more homes selling for below their assessed tax value.

In Loudoun County, the average assessed value of a single-family home dropped 7.1 percent. Preliminary estimates show a 4 percent drop in Prince William County. Arlington County housing values are down eight-tenths of a percent, and Alexandria's average fell about 3 percent. Fairfax County was about three-tenths of 1 percent. (Washington Post)

The tax value is used as one factor when determining your property taxes. The other part of the equation is the tax rate. With increasing tax assessments, the tax rate has been reduced from $1.23 in 2002 to just 89 cents last year in Fairfax County. It seems that the rate will remain the same this year – so for most people the property taxes should remain the same or be down sligtly.

In case you didn’t know - the tax assessed value has little or no effect on the resale value of your home. That being said, I do have people coming up to me (usually at parties) claiming they have found some secret formula to calculate a likely sales price based on the tax assessed value. There are also realtors in the current market that use the tax assessed value as an argument for a reduction for their buyer clients (“I will not have my clients pay above the tax assessed value”.) And then there is the person that called me up to tell me how they had just increased the value of their home by appealing their too-low tax assessment…

The tax assessed value is typically done by a mass estimating process. In general, there isn’t a tax person coming out to your specific house to look at what features and upgrades you have. For more information on how it is done, just go to the Fairfax County website at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dta/FAQ_Determine_Correct.htm

If you believe your assessed value is above what you can currently sell your home for, you can appeal the assessment. Support your argument with similar sales in your neighborhood and/or by looking at the assessed value of similar homes in your area. If you live in Fairfax County you can search online at http://icare.fairfaxcounty.gov/Main/Home.aspx for recent sales and assessment values.