Teardowns bringing land values up, structure values down
Dallas County residents got their tax appraisals a couple weeks ago, and we’ve heard from a number of homeowners who made an interesting discovery when they opened the appraisal – while their total appraisal value didn’t change dramatically, the value of the land skyrocketed and the value of the property dropped just as much, sometimes as much as nearly $100,000.
I spoke with Cheryl Jordan, community relations officer for Dallas Central Appraisal District, who told me this isn’t a new phenomenon, especially within the city limits of Dallas, people are just looking at their appraisals more closely this year.
“This has been going on for four or five years, and people are just noticing it more this year,” she said.
State law requires DCAD to distinguish between land and structure values on its appraisals. DCAD has a variety of models it uses to establish those values.
But when a neighborhood has just one tear down, or one vacant lot purchased, it adds another variable to the mix.
When a landowner purchases a piece of property and the existing structure is torn down, “obviously they’re buying it for the land since they tore down the house, Jordan said. “What they paid was indicative that they wanted that lot,” and DCAD adjusts its models accordingly.
Completely unrelated to the aforementioned topic, I asked Jordan if the number of protests has increased. She said it was too soon to tell, but anecdotally, it seemed like walk-in business was about normal.
But in a strange case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t, Jordan said some homeowners are coming to protest their appraisal because they feel it is too low.
“We’ve lowered a lot of values, and some people who are trying to refinance or sell, they complain that it’s been lowered too much,” Jordan said.
Other times, Jordan said, people believe their value shouldn’t go down out of pride, regardless of the tax implications. Unsatisfied with the thought of their investment decreasing, they protest to get their appraisal raised.
- Posted by Austin Kilgore on May 13, 2009 at 02:43 PM in Kilgore, Residential Real Estate, Advocate Mag, Lakewood - E Dallas
- Comments (7)
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What idiot would take the time to protest their taxes to get them raised? That is ludacris.
Anyone selling their home that thinks a prospectie buyer would consider that the County's assessment is accurate is also crazy. You should in fact be "selling" the fact that the home is undervalued by the County and stating the savings of the lower taxes.
Maybe I should have someone with all that free time protest my taxes for me. On second thought ...
Ludacris - An American rapper, and actor. Along with his manager, Chaka Zulu, Ludacris is the co-founder of Disturbing tha Peace, an imprint distributed by Def Jam Recordings.
Ludicrous - Etymology: Latin ludicrus, from ludus play, sport; perhaps akin to Greek loidoros abusive
Date: 1712
1 : amusing or laughable through obvious absurdity, incongruity, exaggeration, or eccentricity
2 : meriting derisive laughter or scorn as absurdly inept, false, or foolish
Tick,tick,tick............
I have been posting (some would call it ranting) on this and other web sites for awhile.
The only thing that will give single family home owners tax equity is full disclosure of real estate sales prices in all property transactions (commercial and residential).
Until then the burden of paying for property taxes will be unfairly levied on the single family property owner.
Has anyone figured out if the effective tax yield of the City goes up/down when the ratio of land to structure changes? Call me cynical, but I would also believe that something is going on there.
Also, I also have to believe that City is driving people to obtain the relevant permits for remodel projects. When a property is permitted and the City is aware of the updates/remodel, it will then be reflected both in it's actual condition and the condition classified on the tax appraisal rolls. If a home has been remodeled, the value of the structure will clearly improve over just a "scrape/tear-down" value especially relative to it's neighbors.
It would also follow that if you want to obtain any type of lending against the home but haven't reported any improvements/remodeling to the City, it will likely be very difficult to obtain lending as it's taxable classification will be grossly understated.
What’s the story here? Why are you continuing the myth that the way they split the value of your property between the structure and the land makes any difference? When you sell you sell both and when you sell you negotiate for the market rate.
DCAD appraisal values have little or no bearing on the market value of your property. They are simply a magic number used to set property taxes. The value of your property is the amount you sell it for, not some arbitrary number the government makes up for you.
very subtle, Lakewoody; not so subtle on calling others idiots if you can't even spell or use tools to help you, or not place any impotance on language skills, KG ;^>
Ho,Ho, Ho, comrades. Property tax laws in Texas are a scam. My tax has gone up 4x in 20 years. We are sheep for the shearing.