What do I need to know about the County assessment notice I just received in the mail?

Not long ago I did an article on property taxes, and how they work here in Teton County. In that article I go over levies, taxing districts and so on. Since I won’t go into too much detail on that end of things, feel free to email me, and I will forward you the link to that post. I keep all of the Ask the Expert articles up on the Teton Valley Realty website blog.
Anyway – the county’s primary source of revenue is property tax. The county has to come up with a way for all property owners to share the cost of “operations”, and they accomplished that by prorating each property owner’s share based on the value of their property. They determine that value based on sales prices, construction costs, rents, etc. Whenever a property is sold here in the county, they send the new property owner a letter requesting the details of the sale, including purchase price. ***Note, Idaho is a non-disclosure state, and the new owner is not required to respond to the letter.
Back to your asessment notice. Many of you probably noticed an increase in your assessed value this year. Don’t get excited, this only means that your prorated share of property taxes is going to increase. The increase most of us are seeing is based mostly on real estate recovery. Building costs are up, rents are up, demand is higher than in recent years, and supply is low. It’s important that you understand the accuracy of this letter. If the county is assessing the value of your property too high, you could be unnecessarily paying more than your fair share of property taxes. If the value is too low… well, you decide what to do.
If you read read your notice, you will see instructions on how to “appeal” your property’s assesment. If you only made note of the value and stashed it in your file cabinet, you can find that information on the county’s website under additional information on the assessor page. If you don’t email, you can pick up the information at the county courthouse during normal business hours, or stop by my office and I will print it out for you. IMPORTANT – should you decide that the county is over valuing your property, the deadline for appeal is Monday, June 22nd at 5:00 PM. The county is surprisingly easy to work with regarding the appeal process, but probably less so as we approach the deadline. Those who wait until 4:30PM on Monday the 22nd, might see less cooperation.
Prior to starting the appeal process, it would be a good idea to arm yourself with data supporting your claim that your property is overvalued. If you are a land owner, you might obtain recent sales of lots in your subdivision or nearby. When the county assesses homes, they value the land, then the improvements for a total assessed value. You could obtain sales data for land, or data of recent home sales in your area, as long as they are similar in size. If you have a finished basement and your neighbor doesn’t, that would definitely affect assessed value. A great resource is your favorite real estate agent, who would probably love to send you the information you are looking for.
There is a bit of good news in all of this, our market is improving dramatically. If you missed last month’s article, It’s a good overview of where we are today.