Tuesday, December 29, 2009

HoCo Home Assessments Drop 23.1%

According to this front page story by Larry Carson in The Sun today, the assessed value of homes in Howard County dropped by 23.1% since 2006. Across the State of Maryland, assessed values dropped an average of 19.7% “the largest decline in the state assessment office's history.”

This doesn’t mean our property taxes are likely to go down though.

“In Howard County, for example, if a home doubled in value, the owner pays taxes on only 5 percent of that increase yearly. So even this year's 23.1 percent decline in residential value won't produce a tax bill cut.”

Curiously, Carson also reported that during the same period commercial properties actually increased in value according to the State Department of Assessments and Taxation. That doesn’t jibe at all with what the financial community thinks.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just received our assessment. Bought in 2006 (great for selling our townhome, terrible for buying our SFH) for $435,000. Property assessed by state at $445,900. Now..... $295,000. Shockingly low, but don't think I will be complaining. Houses are selling for considerably more in our neighborhood, so not sure how they determined that figure.

Anonymous said...

This drop in real estate values is great news for affordable housing advocates.