From time to time the municipalities go through their own appeal procedure to the State to change their equalization rate. The higher the equalization rate — the closer it is to 100% — the closer your assessment is considered by the State to be to the actual market value of your property.

You can obtain your local Equalization Rate or Ratio from the Assessor’s office or the County’s Real Property Tax Office. Once you know your assessment
and your equalization rate, you can calculate the market value of your property determined by the Assessor. Simply apply your local equalization rate to
your property assessment. For example, if your property is assessed at $100,000 and the equalization rate is 50%, the indicated market value is $200,000. If you feel that the actual market value of your property is significantly lower, you may be justified in starting a grievance procedure. Before investing
too much time and effort in this, however, it would be prudent to seek a preliminary opinion from a real estate professional.


So I have a question

Say my house is worth $50,000. The Equalization rate for Sch'dy is 123 percent. What would be the market value of my home and do I get taxed for
the assessed value or the market value?

ok I just divided 50,000 by 1.23 and came up with 40650 So would that be the market value on my house?

Equalization rates do not correct unfair assessments within a municipality

Equalization rates measure the level of assessment for the entire municipality. They are not intended to correct unfair individual assessments in a city
or town. The assessor has the primary role in ensuring the fairness of individual assessments. The more frequently properties are reassessed based on
current market values, the more likely it will be that assessments are fair. Property owners also have a role to ensure their individual assessments are
fair.

I have three comparables to my home from the county website all over $9,000 less than mine. So then I hit comparable sales and there were none.

Doing a search on the web only found one in my neighborhood that sold last year for $20,000 less than my assessment.

Neighborhood
.

Among Schenectady homes, this home is valued 45% less than the midpoint (median) home, and is valued 27.3% less per square foot. Foreclosures
will be a factor impacting home values in the next several years. In the Schenectady market, the number of foreclosures waiting to be sold dropped
32.7% in the last year. The number of unsold foreclosures is 347.6% greater than in Albany Metro, and 30.6% higher than the national average. This
higher local number may prevent Schenectady home values from rising as quickly as other regions in Albany Metro.

the equalization rate along with,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, WHAT THE 'F' IS THE LEVY FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quoted from senders

the equalization rate along with,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, WHAT THE 'F' IS THE LEVY FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First off, the equalization rate has NOTHING to do with the tax LEVY


The "levy" is the amount of money the taxing entity (e.g., the city, the county, the school district) must collect from property taxes to make their budget.

The city for example, may get $X  from the fed govt, $Y from the state govt, $Z from sales tax, it assumes it will collect so much from death certs, building permits, etc.   After all those sources of income are factored in (in some cases it already knows that $X is coming from $X sourse; in other cases it ASSUMES it will collect a certain amount of money from, say, death certificates, i.e., it ASSUMES a certain number of people will die, or it ASSUMES a certain number of people will apply for building permits because it ASSUMES homeowners are rich enough to remodel their kitchens --just remember the higher value of the work you do, the higher cost of a building permit),  So after all the known and assumed factors, the city says "in order to meet this budget, based on those known and assumed factors, we need to collect $N from property taxes.  That $N amount is the "levy."

The math then is:   Tax LEVY divided by the Total TAXABLE Values = tax RATE per thousand

The key here is that number in red

The number in red will show how the city is screwing the homeowners big time.

I don't know off hand what the tax LEVY was for the city for 2014.   But let me try to explain this.  Let's say that after the dems take tax dollars and they have built all these shiny new buildings downtown, that all of the ASSSESSED values of downtown was $100 million.  Let's say that the total ASSESSED value of the rest of the city was $150 million making the total ASSESSED value of the city as $250 million.  Follow that so far?

Let's just throw out a hypothetical number for the tax LEVY as $50 million.

You might think the tax LEVY ($50 m) divided by the Assessed value ($250m) = the tax RATE

However, remember, the key here is that it's the tax LEVY divided by the Total TAXABLE VALUE, and NOT the "total assessed value".

When the city dem exempt downtown from taxes, then, using the hypotheticl numbers above, then the levy is divided by $150 m instead of $250 m which then causes the tax RATE to be higher.

For example, if downtown was not tax exempt, then perhaps the tax RATE was let's say $8.00.  First of all, remember it's a tax RATE PER THOUSAND OF ASSESSED VALUE.

So if your "assessed value" is $50,000, then your tax BILL is calculated by first dividing your assessed value of $50,000 by 1,000, which is $50.   The tax RATE of $8.00 (per thousand) therefore is 50 x $8.00 which ix  your tax BILL of $400.  

Now, when the city "exempts" downtown from paying taxes, the TAXABLE value of the downtown properties becomes $0.  Proctor's for example, I believe has an ASSESSED value of $25 million but the TAXABLE value is $0.

So we have this math equation, again, using hypothetical numbers.

     $ 250 million (total ASSESSED value of ALL properties in the city)
    -   100 million (total ASSESSED value of ALL downtown property)
     $ 150 million (total TAXABLE value of property in the city.

Follow that?

So, when the LEVY is divided by the lower TAXABLE value, the RATE goes higher, so the tax RATE might then be $11.00 per thousand so instead of your 50 x $8 = tax BILL of $400, your assessed value is done 50 x $11 = $550.

So you see, when the city dems set the TAXABLE value of the downtown buildings at $0 it pushes the tax RATE up much higher for the homeowners because the tax LEVY (the amount of money that must be collected in property taxes) is divided up among only the financially struggling homeonwers and NOT among the multimillionares downtown and the homeowners.

Now of course, there are other properties in the city which are tax exempt, churches for example because the idea is that churches provide services to the poor and thus cut expenses for the government.  Think of hospitals (for the moment, forget about obamacare).  Hospitals would be exempt from paying money to the government because the idea is that they provided medical services to the poor which saved the government money.  Instead of the government paying $1,000 to a hospital for the cost of care for a poor person, the hospital would provide the care and not get paid for it. In return for providing free care to the poor, the hospitals became tax exempt.  

A place like the city mission is deemed a non-profit, and thus tax exempt, because by feeding the poor it saves the government money, say, on food stamps.  

Now, the lavish King Phillip banquet Key Hall downtown, WHY is that tax exempt?   What does that place do for the poor?  Does King Phillip feed the poor in that place?  NO.  Just try to have a wedding there, I'd bet that the charge is at least $3,000 per guest so King Phillip[ is raking in super big bucks on that Key Hall which CLEARLY and WITHOUT QUESTION is a "FOR PROFIT BUSINESS" but the dems in the city have chosen to designate it as a "not-for-profit."

Proctors has been defined as a "not for profit" but CLEARLLY AND WITHOTU QUESTION is the furthest thing from a not-for-profit as it can get.  King Phillip and his cronies in the city would of course say "well, we don't make a lot of profit" and further explain that they have to pay employees, they have to pay acting company etc.  Well that's too bad.  If you don't make as much profit as you WANT to make, well, that does NOT mean that you meet the definition of a "not-for-profit."

If Proctors cannot meet all it's expenses when it charges $100 for a show, that does NOT mean it meets the definition of "not-for-profit."  If I open a business to sell cars and I cannot meet expenses if I charge $20,000 for each car sold, does that mean I should be designated as a "not-for-profit?   NO, it means I need to charge a higher price for the cars.  I know this will sound stupid, but it would be more valid to define a car dealership as a not-for-profit because people need to buy a car in order to get to work in order to have an income in order to save the government money on supporting them, if you follow what I'm saying there.  But I'm not going to get into all that.  

So of course, in the mix of tax exempt, you have all these FOR-PROFIT businesses such as Villa Italia, Proctor's, Bow Tie, Hampton Hotel, General Electric, all the Galesi properties, etc, and you have the true not-for-profits such as churches, hospitals, and charities, subtract the total ASSESSED value of all those properties and the math answer is the TOTAL TAXABLE value.



  

Now, about the "equalization rate."

When the equalization rate is 100%, it is presumed to mean that properties are assessed at 100% of market value.

Market value is basically what houses would sell for.  That can't be an exact figure.  You can't know the exact market value of your house until your house is sold on the open market.  So market value has generally been viewed based on the actual sale prices of comparable houses in your area.  So if comparable houses in your area are selling for $40,000 then the market value of your house would be considered to be about $40,000.  Perhaps you have one extra bedroom than the other houses, so that could mean the market value of your house might be slightly higher, say $41,000.  Or maybe all the other comps have same number of bedrooms as you, but they all have a garage and you don't so therefore your house might have a value of $39,000.

If the equalization rate is 100% then in theory your house would sell on the open market for the amount that is your assessment value.

But with the equalization rate of 123% -- that is a supposed to be number set by the state based largely on ALL sales of ALL property throughout the city -- without any regard for residential vs commercial, old vs newly built, etc.  It's possible that among all properties, SOME sold for higher than the assessed value, SOME sold for perhaps 10% less than assessed value and still others sold for perhaps 40% less than assessed value.  Maybe typical "up and down" two family houses in Upper Union are assessed for $120,000 (from the last citywide reassessment) and are selling on the open market for $110,000.  But similar houses in "the Hill" are assessed for $80,000 (in the last citywide reassessment) but are selling $40,000.  Using this example, houses in the Upper Union area are assessed only slightly higher than their market value where houses in the hill are assessed drastically higher than their market value.  So based upon that variance the state comes up with this equalization rate.  

Still, using the numbers in the above paragraph, if houses on the hill were generally assessed at $80,000 and otherwise similar houses in the Upper Union St area were assessed for $120,000, this is what you will see when the tentative assessement roll comes out (based on an equalization rate of 123%).

House A Upper Union St area          Assessed value   $120,000    Full Market Value  $97,561
House B Hamilton Hill area              Assessed value   $ 80,000    Full Market Value   $65,041

Again, REMEMBER the equalization rate does NOT accurately reflect the percent of value that properties are assessed for, remember it's an "average" of sorts.

Let's get back to the example using sale prices.

If houses in the Upper Union St area are typically selling for $110,000, and they are assessed for $120,000, the owners would have a difficult time grieving and claiming they are over assessed because if the houses are selling for $110,000 making that the full market value, then multiplying the full market value of $110,000 times the equalization rate of 123% means they should be assessed for $135,300.

But if houses in the hill are selling for typically $40,000, then the math is
  $40,000   (full market value based on typical sale prices of comps)
x    1.23%  (equalization rate)
  $49,200   (appropriate assessed value)

So a homeowner in the hill assessed for $80,000 would have a very valid grievance if comps are selling for typically $40,000.


Thus, you try to come up with a market value of your house based on:
-  actual sale prices of houses comparable to yours in your area
-  the asking price history of comparable houses in your area of houses which are listed for sale but have not sold.

I think it's logical to use an average sale price to start and then consider that perhaps your house has one more bedroom than the others, or the same number of bedrooms but no garage while all other comps that sold do have a garage (follow that).

Now, there is something else when trying to grieve and the city will generally use this argument and it's not valid.  Look at all the comparable houses just on your street and see what the assessment values are.  Now, think of this.  Suppose you are assessed for $70,000 and all other houses are assessed for $90,000.  The city would say, in a grievance "but all the other houses are assessed for $90,000."  But the reason for that is that the owners may never have CHOSEN to grieve even though their houses could only sell for $40,000.   See, what happens, especially with older people with little income is they have a house assessed for $100,000 but they have the STAR enhanced exemption PLUS, say, a combat vet exemption PLUS the 50% elderly/disabled income based exemption, and all those might reduce their tax BILL to, say $700 (of which perhaps $600 is the sewer + water + trash "fee").  But without those exemptions the tax BILL would exceed $5,000.   But paying so little, they don't find a need to grieve to save $100.

The other reason assessment values are not a good argument is that many landlords may not grieve because they aren't as concerned about the tax BILL because they can increase the rent to cover the cost of the tax BILL.  OK OK!  That is not quite as valid an argument as it may have been in the past   But it is something to consider.

Her is something else to think about when comparing assessment values.  If the city has your house assessed for $100,000 and you mistakenly think that's what the market value of your house is, AND IF you are looking to put your house up for sale soon, well, you don't want to grieve and thus lower what you think is the market value of your house.  You'd be amazed at how many people really and truly think that the assessed value of their house is what there house is worth on the open market, i.e., what their house could sell for.

Think of that house at 1077 Glenwood Blvd.  It is assessed for $182,000.  The taxes are over $8,000.  The owner of that house should grieve their assessment and could mostly likely -- at the small claims assessment review level -- win a reduction to, say, $100,000 which could bring the tax BILL down to $5,000 roughly and maybe it could sell easier.  But the homeowner/seller obviously does not understand the connection.  And prospective buyers obviously do not understand that if they buy that house for $100,000 that they can grieve the assessed value and get it lowered to the $100,000 that they'd buy the house for.

People really do not understand all this.  It takes a lot of reading.

But while most all houses in the city are "over-assessed," there is something I remember that when the equalization rate exceeds 100% you cannot base a grievance on "over-assessed' but rather based on "unequal assessment."  I seem to remember hearing that maybe 10 to 15 years ago trying to help someone and filling out the form  using an ER that was over 100% caused a problem on the form.  I wish I could remember what math issue arose.

be careful with the assessed value is equal what you house sells for

I want my house to sell for the highest value

you home should be assessed for the average value of homes like yours in like neighborhoods  - may be 10-15% below the highest value

and equalization rate are pure evil - they prevent new home buyers from entering the neighborhood as the assessor will want to apply the selling price of the home to the assessment rolls.   this is bad in 4 ways
1 - your assessment is not at the average assessment value
2 - when a equalization rate is applied you will be be even further away from the mean value
3 - when the first two are applied you will be paying a portion of the levy that is unfair
4 - when this happens homes that have not been re assessed DONOT pay a fair share of the levy(friend and family of the assessor)

this is why towns and cities DONOT want to reassess - it provides a political advantage to the party in power - it is not because it is expensive because the assessor and the team did not do their job

MikeChristine
So if I take the assessed value of my home and divide it by 1.23 shouldn't that give me the market value.

Also 99 percent of the sites I visited regarding assessments said to make an appointment with your local assessor to have an informal review.

But Mr. Barber said he is not doing that .

Going to try again.

Quoted from rpforpres

MikeChristine
So if I take the assessed value of my home and divide it by 1.23 shouldn't that give me the market value.

Also 99 percent of the sites I visited regarding assessments said to make an appointment with your local assessor to have an informal review.

But Mr. Barber said he is not doing that .

Going to try again.

Request the informal review in writing and send it certified and to his work email if possible.  Get his denial of your request in writing if possible or get a witness.

Quoted from rpforpres

MikeChristine
So if I take the assessed value of my home and divide it by 1.23 shouldn't that give me the market value.

NO!!!!!


And here is why.

Use the example of a house assessed for $80,000.   Based on the equalization rate of 123%, the tentative assessment roll will show two numbers:
Assessed Value $80,000
Full Market Value  $65,041


If you believed that $65,041 is the market value of your house, then what would you be grieving?  What would happen is that you would go into a grievance saying "the full market value of my house is $65,041 and based on the equalization rate of 123% then I believe my assessed value should be $80,000 (full market value x equalization rate = assessed value).

You see what you would be doing?
$65,041 x 123% = $80,000.  


No, do NOT pay ANY attention to the "full market value" as shown on the tentative assessment roll.  Ignore it.

Find the sale price of comps (which would typically indicate market value).  Suppose the average sale prices of comps in your area was $39,000.  

You might then figure your market value to be roughly that amount, and you decide on $40,000 (close to that average sale prices of $39,000).

What you will do essentially is make these points:
-  I have determined my house to have a market value of $40,000
-  As the assessed value of houses is to be 123% of market value, then $40,000 x 1.23% = $49,200
-  I therefore request my assessment value to be reduced to $49,200

Quoted from TakingItBack

Request the informal review in writing and send it certified and to his work email if possible.  Get his denial of your request in writing if possible or get a witness.

Informal reviews are done
1.  With the assessor's office following a citywide reassessment but BEFORE the publication of the "Tentative" Assessment roll of May 1
OR
2.  With the assessor's office upon request, typically around January IF, and that is IF the assessor's office is willing to do such information review - in the city of Schenectady, they NEVER do informal reviews in the absence of a citywide reassessment.

Therefore, in the absence of an informal review, you need to go to the grievance before the board of assessment.

MC1 thanks so much for explaining all that  

Quoted Text

In New York State, the property tax is a local
tax, raised and spent locally to finance local
governments and public schools. While the
State does not collect or receive any direct
benefit from the property tax, this tax is still of
major importance as the largest single revenue
source for the support of municipal and school
district services. More than $26 billion is
raised in local property taxes across the state
annually.

The New York State Office of Real Property
Tax Services (ORPTS) is statutorily obligated
to administer an equalization program in order
to assure equitable property tax allocation
among nearly 4,000 taxing jurisdictions in New
York State, and to insure the proper allocation
of State Aid to Education funds, among other
purposes. Equalization seeks to measure the
relationship of locally assessed values to an
ever-changing real estate market. Each year,
ORPTS calculates equalization rates for each
of the state’s more than 1,200 assessing units.

Why is equalization necessary?

Equalization is necessary in New York State
because: (1) there is no fixed percentage at
which property must be assessed; (2) not all
municipalities assess property at the same
percentage of market value; and (3) taxing
jurisdictions, such as most school districts, do
not share the same taxing boundaries as the
cities and towns that are responsible for
assessing properties. Most of the state’s more
than 700 school districts distribute their taxes
among segments of several municipalities,
many of which have different levels of
assessment. The number of municipal
segments in a school district can range from
one to fifteen or more.



What is an equalization rate?

At its simplest, an equalization rate is the
state’s measure of a municipality’s level of
assessment (LOA). This is the ratio of total
assessed value (AV) to the municipality’s total
market value (MV). The municipality
determines the AV; the MV is estimated by the
state. The equalization rate formula is:

Total Assessed Value (AV)
= Equalization Rate
Total Market Value (MV)

Equalization rates do not indicate the degree of
uniformity among assessments within a
municipality. (More information regarding
uniformity is available in the pamphlet, Fair
Assessments – A Guide for Property Owners.)

What does your equalization rate mean?

• An equalization rate of 100 means that
the municipality is assessing property at
100 percent of market value.
• An equalization rate of less than 100
means that the municipality’s total
market value is greater than its assessed
value.
• An equalization rate of greater than 100
means that the total assessed value for
the municipality is greater than its total
market value.

There would be no need for equalization if all
municipalities assessed all property at 100
percent of market value every year.





What is the relationship between the State’s
equalization rate and the municipality’s level of
assessment?

In New York State each municipality is authorized
to assess at market value or some fraction of
market value. A level of assessment (LOA) of 50
percent means that assessments are at half of
market value; an LOA of 100 percent means a
community is assessing at 100 percent of market
value. Regardless of the LOA chosen by a
municipality, all of the assessments in the
municipality are required by law to be at a uniform
percentage of market value.

Equalization rates are the state’s measure of each
municipality’s LOA. Each local assessor is
required by law to state the municipal LOA on
each year’s assessment roll. The state determines
the equalization rate by analyzing the locally
stated LOA. In accordance with national
standards, ORPTS reviews the work of the
assessor and determines whether the stated LOA is
within adequate tolerances to be used as the
equalization rate. If certain criteria are met, the
LOA becomes the rate. In municipalities where
ORPTS cannot accept or confirm the LOA,
ORPTS uses its own independent estimate of total
market value to compare to the total assessed
value.

What is the benefit of having the locally
determined LOA accepted as the equalization
rate?

Where assessors are accurately stating the LOA on
the tentative assessment roll, they will be
indicating the equalization rate upon which school
taxes are distributed. When municipalities keep
assessments up-to-date each year, they will be
adjusting assessed values to reflect market
changes, resulting in a consistent LOA and
equalization rate from year to year.

What does it mean when your municipality’s
equalization rate decreases?

A falling equalization rate means that market
values are rising faster than assessed values.
Keeping assessments up-to-date annually can
result in consistent equalization rates each year.

Why do equalization rates need to be
established each year?

The Real Property Tax Law requires that
annual State equalization rates be established
for each county, city, town and village.
Equalization rates are calculated each year to
reflect that year’s assessment roll and current
market values for each assessing unit.

What are equalization rates used for?

Aside from apportionment of taxes among
municipal segments of school districts and
counties, and distribution of State Aid for
Education, some of the less recognized uses of
equalization rates include:

 establishment of tax and debt limits;
 allocation of costs, such as for jointly
operated hospitals among participating
localities or an injury to a volunteer
firefighter, among others;
 determination of state assessments
(special franchise) or approval of local
assessments (state-owned land);
 determination of ceilings (railroad and
agricultural values) and exemptions;
 determination of level of STAR
exemptions;
 apportionment of sales tax revenues and
joint indebtedness; and
 as evidence in court proceedings on the
issue of assessment inequity and small
claims assessment review hearings.

so YES it does affect what we end up paying via the levy required to pay for all those services....the equalization is like a
political coupon.....