Property Tax Appeal

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Property Tax Appeal & Property Tax Protest

In turn, owners are lining up to conduct their own property tax appeals to get a reduction in their real estate taxes. At the same time cities are fighting hard to keep their base - the result is shaping up to be an all-out"dog fight".
With the current credit crisis and softening economy, property values have dropped significantly across all states and with all property types.
For owners, reducing property taxes has an immediate impact to the owner's bottom line. All property tax savings go right to the NOI (Which in a way, actually increases the property's value). The savings can be huge and once the new assessed value is established, the savings are ongoing, year after year. In short, it is well worth most owner’s time to fight for this, especially those that have purchased their property in the last 5 years or less.
On the commercial side, we are seeing a drop in value as capitalization rates continue to rise and as the credit crisis lingers. Longer amortization schedules and "built in" appreciation models within commercial loans have had an almost artificial boast in property values. Now as these commercial loans are gone, this artificial increased value is gone.

Property Tax Appeal

There's a procedure to getting for any property tax appeal and remember your city, does not want to lessen its tax base (they have those pensions and long vacations to protect). There is a lot that goes into doing it right, but perhaps the biggest issue, that most property owners are shocked to learn is how much control the city has in picking the COMPS (comparable recent sales). Your city will only want to use comps from transaction that happened under normal, non-distressed conditions. They often refer to this as "Fair Market Value without Undue Influences."

What this really boils down to is that your city will not want to use comps from foreclosed properties sales and or from other "distressed" sellers. They will want to use comps that support their estimates of value. Which of course support their point of view and their tax base. A major problem with this is that a lot of transactions these days occur from foreclosed properties...

The owner considering a property tax appeal will have to know how to deal with this issue as well as others before they sit in front of their city to appeal. Your city will do everything in their power to protect their tax base. You will need to understand the process; otherwise you will just waste your time.

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Real Estate Market Research & Consulting Services

Texas is hot. Not just in terms of what the thermometer says, but also in terms of real estate. Three of the top five real estate markets in the U.S. right now are all in the Lone Star State.

Denver
Now that the economy is perking up, home prices and housing demand are both on the rise in the beautiful Mile High City.
Unlike pre-recession levels, however, oil companies do not dominate the employment market as much as they did, so the Denver economy is not as volatile as it once was. Plus, the housing areas around the country that fell the hardest when the recession hit were the first to start to recover. Once those areas balanced back out, it was time for other markets to grow. Denver has seen home sales increase 4.6% over last year, and home prices increase 9.2% in the same time frame, making it one of the single hottest real estate markets around.

San Antonio
The first Texas entry is for an area with a robust economy and reasonable home prices. Home prices here have still risen 4.3% over 2014 levels, and sales overall are up 5.5%. San Antonio has also outpaced the nation in terms of job growth, posting a mere 4% unemployment rate earlier this year thanks to adding additional types of businesses besides oil so instability in the economy has been reduced.

San Jose
It has been well noted recently that the entire Bay Area has been extremely popular in terms of housing.
Bidding wars have broken out over homes, and houses are selling within days of hitting the market, even fixer-uppers. San Jose, just to the south of San Francisco, has a median home price of over $680,000. High tech is king once again, and that brings people to the area. Workers are looking for places to live, leading experts to predict that home sales will increase 7% this year over 2014.

Dallas
Next on the Texas three-step is the home of the Cowboys. In the last few years the price of oil has fluctuated, but Dallas real estate market has made it a point to stay strong despite the deck it was dealt. They have added jobs at a rate that outpaces the national recovery, and home sales are back to pre-recession levels. Prices in Dallas are up 7.3% over last year, and the predictions are that these economic indicators will remain true for a while to come.

Houston
Houston rounds out the Texas trifecta despite being the one city on the list that hasn't diversified employment much outside the oil industry. Buoyed by the fact that Texas is attracting more people than any other state, sales of houses are expected to be 5% higher this year than in 2014.