Quoted from biaggio

My evaluation is correct....the tax rate is the joke....Taxes on a house comparable to mine in ALL surrounding
communities are LOWER....Guilderland...Colonie etc....

But what is the value of the houses?   What was the purchase prices?

Watch home and garden network, I don't know what the city and state were, but the house hunters show, the couple was looking at the little bungalow....asking prices about $700,000 !!!   Around here, such comparable houses would be about $150,00.

So, maybe the taxes will be lower, but you tell me how much you will pay for a mortgage on a $150,000 house vs a $700,000?  And try coming up with 20% downpayment.

Have an classmate I keep in touch with who moved to California, can't remember the area, but he spoke about the very low school taxes.  He didn't live in Rotterdam here, may have been Guilderland.  But then he further said that the families who have kids in extra clubs and sports pay themselves, it's not part of school taxes.  Some, including me, will say, why should we have to spend this money on sports.  We should we pay millions for a swimming pool at a schoo, plus all the insurance and upkeep, when we need to repair our homes?  (Then many districts do the bond issue for the pool first, then a few years later go back with more bond issues for repairs to the school buildings, you'd think they do the repairs first, and build the pool when WE can afford it.  We only have an above ground but even then it was postponed for several years because we had repair things to do, had to buy a car, etc.

Interesting. private appraisal urged.  What is a private appraisal?  It is a process to determine the market value of your house by taking into account an visual look inside as well as outside, and of course comparing based on actually recent selling prices of comparable houses in your neighborhood.

What is a reassessment?  It is a process to determine a revised value of an existing assessment, thus coming up with an allegedly proper assesment, i.e., market value of your home by taking into account visual looks ____________________________ / outside and of course comparing based on actually recent selling pries of comparable houses in your neighborhood, and some people don't want the assessor to see/confirm various pieces of info (how many baths, full vs half, how many bedrooms, etc) in order to produce a more accurate assessment.

First question, for the "assessment" do you wish to leave out the interior inspection so the assessor or his/her rep cannot see how many rooms?  Etc.

Lastly, again, to be devils advocate about Rotterdam's reassessment -- on both sides.  Some houses were assessed higher than recent sale prices, other houses were assessed lower than the recent sale prices, even of the same homes.  Go to the website and click for the sale info, it will also give you the assessed value.  

I would still get a appraisal.  It would be interesting to see how similar/far apart the appraiser and the assessor are.  

What I think is interesting, when I did my parents in Schenectady, well, looked at the info on one of their reassessments and attended the board of assesmsent meeting with my dad is that we used a selling prices of homes on his street, and repeated lowering of asking prices of hosues that have been for sale for 6 months, a year, no takers at the asking prices--of houes very similar.  The city's choice of a "comparable" house was much further away, lot size about triple and a 3 or 4 car garage to my parents' no garage.  

Gar was supposed to be a so called 'private appraisal'. At one meeting I went to they said that whatever they appraise you house at, is what it can sell for. They actually said that 'no private appraisal' was needed. They (GAR) was it! WELL, I DON'T THINK SO!! Cause there are some houses out there that have NOT be reassessed through this process.

Looking to sell my house....appraisal is higher than what GAR stated...Look at the bigger houses in the area, appraisals are lower( tax rate kills us ).....go to Rotterdam Junction and look at Mallozzi's houses on Monte "something " million "dollar house assessed at 500,00o ++

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Area home value climb tapers off
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
By James Schlett (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

CAPITAL REGION — Rising home values — one of the brightest spots in the greater Capital Region’s housing market — lost momentum in November and the pace of sales continued to slow, according to statistics released Monday by the Greater Capital Association of Realtors.
GCAR registered 756 closed single-family home sales in November, down 9 percent from a year earlier. During the same period the region’s median sale price slipped by 0.3 percent to $187,700.
November’s sluggishness brought the region’s 11-month sales pace to 8,965, down 7 percent from the same period of 2006.
On a year-to-date basis, the median sale price was up 2 percent at $192,500.
Although home values have been dragged down elsewhere in the nation, they have continued to rise locally — a resistance GCAR officials attribute to the region’s strong economy and public sector base. Home values have given little ground and have been fast to recover since the region’s first pricing correction in six years hit in September 2006.
But by November, Albany and Saratoga counties showed near flat home value growth and Schoharie County took a whopping 27 percent hit in its median sale price, which fell to $116,000 based on 26 sales.
Schenectady County continued to bear the brunt of the housing slump, with its November sales falling 11 percent over the year to 114.
However, home values during the same period managed to rise 5 percent to $156,700.
Nationally, home sales took a starker dive in November. Total existing home sales — including townhouses, condominiums and cooperatives — fell 20 percent over the year to 6.25 million.
During that period, the national median single-family sale price fell 3.3 percent to $210,200, the National Association of Realtors also reported Monday.

Mr. Surprise was unanimously appointed to the Assessor position at today's Town Board meeting.

Quoted from biaggio

Looking to sell my house....appraisal is higher than what GAR stated...Look at the bigger houses in the area, appraisals are lower( tax rate kills us ).....go to Rotterdam Junction and look at Mallozzi's houses on Monte "something " million "dollar house assessed at 500,00o ++

Ohhhhh..there has been a lot of talk about Mallozzi's house. Everyone that I have talked to said that their house is way under assessed. And not just from it's outward appearance. Mallozzi's house has been a bone of contention among some residents since the values were posted on the town web site.

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Appraisal worth the $150-$250 added cost

    Re the Dec. 16 letter by Rotterdam Assessor John Macejka Jr., “Taxpayers shouldn’t waste money on an appraiser to beat reval”: He should know that an appraisal is an opinion of value.
    I don’t know about readers, but I’m not ready to pay taxes on an assessor’s opinion of value. I’m sure the town board influences him. An appraisal is not that expensive when it comes to [paying] taxes. An appraisal will cost about $150 to $250 — depending on the work involved.
    I have been in the real estate business for 42 years, and rarely did a house sell at the assessed value. Personally, I need more than an assessor’s value to sell my property
    FRAN MILLIMAN
    Schenectady     

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION----neighbors neighbors neighbors.......the value of anything is squat unless we make it valuable.....as for government misdeeds and misdirection and waste---there is a cure---THE VOTE......

E#xactly senders.....Exactly!!!!!

I say to have an appraisal done if you think it isn't fair. Some people's homes are assessed higher than they thought their house was worth. And perhaps they are happy since they think they will be able to get that price when they sell. Well think again. In some cases that may be true, but in some other cases, the houses are assessed way to high and the people would NEVER get their price. And yet that is what their taxes are based on.

I say have an appraisal done and then go to Mr.Surprise with your findings.

I really think my appraisal is corresct, possibly even low...but lets say I do get one and they reduce it by 20,000
my taxes will reduce by about 600 bucks so 5800 to 7400.....still crazy wouldny you say. I would also think that when my bank appraised they did a better job than you think. Dont worry, rotterdam will drop in value big time and everyone can be happy there taxes will go down...Tax rate needs to be reviewed....

Quoted from biaggio

...Tax rate needs to be reviewed....

I agree!!

It depends on what I am getting for my taxes.....if it is a water tower in the Juction this year then next year it better be sewers on Hamburg street.....just speak in time lines not studies......AGAIN:

#1 we are going to do blah blah blah
#2 we are going to do blah blah blah
#3 etc.......

stop blowing smoke with other agenda items...........

Hey....what if we created a committee?  I bet we could continue avoiding a solution forever...