In one of the most difficult and challenging economic times in American history, already financially taxed homeowners are being taxed even more – literally and figuratively. Despite the fact that home values across metro Atlanta plummeted tens of thousands of dollars and, in some cases, even hundreds of thousands, tax appraisals did not follow suit.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) did an analysis of residential property sales for Cobb, Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett for 2009 and discovered that county appraisals were much higher than what the property was actually worth. So in the middle of an economic crisis that does not appear to show any obvious signs that there is an end in sight, homeowners are being unjustly taxed on inaccurate property values.
Although there is a state law requiring tax appraisers to correlate estimates to what the actual and current real estate market value is, the AJC has uncovered that they have consistently ignored actual sales and market value to set their appraisals. This “deeply flawed property tax system” routinely allows for the inaccurate appraisal of property which in turn under-taxes some homeowners, and over-taxes others.
Tax officials state that they are extremely hesitant to lower values as much as actual home sales are dictating because they are concerned about the inevitable dissipation of tax revenues as a result and they “simply don’t believe values so low could possibly reflect the market.”
As the real estate crisis started to hit more homeowners where it hurts, many began complaining about what the tax assessors were doing and decided to take action. More than 55,000 residential property owners filed tax returns disputing the inflated values. The number of people who filed was seven times the usual number.
Although tax officials claim they are operating properly and fairly, homeowners who are being grossly overtaxed in the middle of an economic and real estate crisis, beg to differ in a very big way. It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
Tina Fountain is the Broker / Owner of Tina Fountain Realtors, an Atlanta real estate company. For more information, visit Tina’s website at www.tinafountain.com.
