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Robert S • 1 year ago

This is fantastic (especially with the accompanying video). Having had knockdown fights with the assessor in my hometown of New Orleans before, particularly on how much he would undervalue vacant lots (giving extra incentives to people land banking). I think you point out a pretty bulletproof means to start fixing this.

By starting with the assessed value per sq. ft. of residential improvements (eg. buildings) rather than land, it's a lot easier to call out their inequities in assessments. While the value of a parcel per acre can vary drastically (though clearly not as much as they may claim), the value (e.g. cost of construction) of a residential improvement is much more consistent across a geographic area.

When the distilled cost of land becomes more accurate, it will help clear the air a lot better and make remedies easier, particularly amongst vacant lots.

Manualman • 1 year ago

And that's if the rich guys in question play by the rules! Here in IL, our illustrious billionaire governor got caught artificially devaluing the townhome adjoining the one he lived in (owns both) by intentionally disabling the bathrooms so that it was not a habitable structure and was assessed as such. A pretty slick way to get a mid 5 figure tally removed from your real estate taxes...

nobody_special • 1 year ago

Interesting. Here in Seattle homes (including mansions) are generally assessed in the right ballpark of their true market value. Privately-owned golf courses...not so much.

The county records for an 88-acre golf course in an upper-middle-class neighborhood a bit northeast of the University of Washington show an assessed land value of less than $45,000 per acre.

Meanwhile if you sample someofthehouses across the street from or abutting the golf course, you can see the land under those houses is assessed at $4.25-6.6 million per acre, 100x more than the golf course land.

The golf course has the same zoning designation as the houses. Our state law says that properties are supposed to be assessed at the full market value: "the amount a buyer, willing but not obligated to buy, would pay to a seller willing but not obligated to sell." I would bet anything that if the golf course decided they wanted to sell part of their land to a housing developer to fund improvements to their clubhouse, the amount they'd get is much closer to the millions per acre of value assigned to the houses than the $45,000 per acre currently assigned to the golf course.

Joe Minicozzi • 1 year ago

If it's zoned as a higher class of use, then the assessor should be considering that as valuation, but it depends on the state law in WA. But this is worth asking your assessor to explain it out to you.

Sean • 1 year ago

This should be a fun weekend task. Among other things, there's a large golf club and a field that in google maps measures ~4.75 sq. mi (in a city!) nearby.

Javier H • 1 year ago

Peanuts.

The real problem is politicians professionally stealing tax payers money.

You should see how many non-profits in San Francisco with six figure salary employees milk it.

Pelosi with her multi-million dollar houses and stock picks on a 100k salary.........

But we are fighting their cultural war with each other. Made up words like liberal and conservative......left and right........families and friendships have been permanently severed because mainstream media always telling you to hate the other side blindly.

Joe Minicozzi • 1 year ago

I don't necessarily agree with this, pardon the pun, assessment. It's more an issue of data transparency, and to credit the assessors as they did make this information accessible for public scrutiny. So the challenge is more for us citizens to wade into the data with curiosity and an open mind to see what the information shows us. With that said, the same curiosity needs to be maintained by the officials that are at the helm of the data. We all should be open to change when the data shows us that something is unfair or inequitable. What is happening here in Buncombe County is unfair, period. This has nothing to do with anyone in San Francisco.

Collin • 1 year ago

I feel like we would get to the same destination, while extorting everyone less, if less money was totally removed from the local community because somebody wanted to blow up a hospital or whatever on the other side of the world (fighter jets and big boats do look cool though). For perspective, an F-22 uses something like $30k/hr in fuel.

Dustin Pieper • 1 year ago

Do similar disparities show up in the assessed underlying land value of these properties, or is that even separated out in your county's assessment?

Joe Minicozzi • 1 year ago

Yes. The 'land value' has similar distortions and area actually more exacerbated.

Dustin Pieper • 1 year ago

Dang, that's really disappointing. I was hoping that would be more decoupled.

Then again, I guess you often get these mansion developments out away from most amenities (aside from roads and utilities, of course).

Mark • 1 year ago

Very interesting article about an issue I wasn't aware of. I'm intrigued to learn more about the "bad math" which leads to the under-taxation. Can someone provide more information about what's going on here?

Joe Minicozzi • 1 year ago

Watch the video in the above link, "play this game for yourself" and poke around your community. See if it is happening. There could be any host of factors, but it starts with how the property tax software is programmed, and which biases have been worked into the model. It will also differ, depending on our state and your assessor. In our case, we showed this to our assessor, and pointed out that they are practicing gentrification on one side of Hendersonville Road (in the neighborhood of color), and on the other side of the street, the houses are impervious to inflation. That is a clear bias, and doesn't follow standards of practice - period. We raised this issue to our elected officials as well. We have been clear that this is against policy.

AAI • 1 year ago

Thank you for your work Mr. Joe Minicozzi. I took a look at the GIS data (https://www.gcgis.org/apps/... where I am, Greenville, SC. Upon inspecting, all properties values are going up in all areas, though data lags two years behind. Am I looking at the data (Assessment History) incorrectly?

Thank you!

Mark • 1 year ago

Thanks for the link. I watched the video and found a GIS parcel viewer for Vermont (my home state). Unfortunately our viewer is nowhere near as detailed as North Carolina's and does not provide past billing data, so I'm having trouble determining if this is happening here.

In the article you mention this is not a plot to make the rich richer (the quote Sean pulled out, below). Just to make sure I understand - you don't think this bias is intentional?

Joe Minicozzi • 1 year ago

Given that we pointed it out to our electeds and assessor, and they aren't interested in changing it ... it is now intentional. One must first give the opportunity to cure and correct.

mattheboulanger • 1 year ago

http://maps.vcgi.vermont.go... is a fun place to start for VT (It's a value/acre map of the state)

Joe Minicozzi • 1 year ago

John Adams did that! He rocks! The force is strong in that one.

Sean Gillis • 1 year ago

"What I’m describing here is not the work of some malicious bureaucrat or a cabal of county staffers plotting how to make the rich richer."

Really? No, perhaps it's just the politicians then. There is a problematic idea (that seems most pronounced in English speaking countries) that taxation is an unfair burden, not the cost we share to live in a functioning, fair community.