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Time To See Your Tax Assessor

What goes up may come down! Real Estate taxes and you thought it would never happen. There is upside to your home's value falling. Homeowners are now looking to their county government to lower their real estate taxes.The local governments costs are rising but their homeowner's property values are falling. The article makes the correct assumption that rising values were a boom for governments.

Previously, the mechanism used to lower one's real estate taxes was a right of certiorari. Last week I visited the Bedford Town Tax Assessor on an unrelated matter with a client. He was friendly, informative and extremely helpful. Why not visit your town assessor to find out if you are currently paying the correct amount of taxes for your property.

The link for today's New York Times article on prices dropping may mean lower real estate taxes for homeowners.

Posted by Renee Stengel, Westchester County on 12/23/2007 09:19 AM

Comments (6)

property taxes

6 Comments on Time To See Your Tax Assessor

I won't hold my breath. :-)

12/23/2007 09:22 AM

by Gregory D. Maley - Metropolitan Washington, DC REALTOR (Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - Chevy Chase)

Try it you never know!

12/23/2007 09:24 AM

by Renee Stengel, Westchester County (Houlihan Lawrence, Associate Broker)

Having gone through tax reductions on two properties in the past few months, it is still a certiorari. You have to prove and appy for the reduction. The Towns in Westchester are not so quick to reduce property and some towns will make you go to court just to give you a hard time. It is New York State mandate that assessors need to cooperate if you go in and talk to them but that does not translate into an easy reduction of taxes. It is a process that takes time and can only be done once a year - all state mandated.

12/23/2007 09:29 AM

by Miriam Bernstein,Westchester County Real Estate (RE/MAX Prime Properties)

I do not agree because I have had an wonderful experience with our town. You might not have. Our town assessor explained exactly how the taxing policy works and Bedford's is not based on 100% of value. He encourages homeowners to come in a discuss their assessment so that would not be a formal right of certiorari. I think it behoves all property owner to visit their individual town offices and find out for themselves.

12/23/2007 09:46 AM

by Renee Stengel, Westchester County (Houlihan Lawrence, Associate Broker)

Renee - This is great info! Thanks for sharing it on AR.

12/24/2007 12:29 AM

by Joseph Ellman (Realty Executives- Williams-Sykes Realty)

Joseph,

It is a my pleasure to share information with my fellow bloggers on AR.

12/24/2007 06:09 AM

by Renee Stengel, Westchester County (Houlihan Lawrence, Associate Broker)