Atlanta Metro’s Tax Assessment Problem Not Present in Decatur
Decatur Metro | December 7, 2009If you’re a news-junkie with ink-stained fingers or um..carpal tunnel, you know the AJC has gone whole hog on evaluating tax assessments across the metro area and is reporting it’s findings in an in-depth series.
But the shocker being played up by the AJC, namely the widespread discrepancy of tax assessments to sales prices across much of the Atlanta metro area, doesn’t seem to shake out for ol’ 30030, according to the AJC’s zip code breakdown.
In fact, while Decatur’s sales value of homes increased nearly 10% from 2007 to 2008, tax assessments in the city went up only 3.6%. Meanwhile, residents who filed tax returns requested a 19.2% drop in value.
So, according to this AJC analysis (story HERE, cool interactive map HERE), Decatur’s assessments aren’t currently that out of whack. To see what a real problem looks like, take a gander at South DeKalb, or much of South Fulton, where sales value can be as much as 50% less than the property’s tax assessment.
As for the reason why assessments are so much higher than values, most across the Atlanta metro tax offices were pretty upfront with the AJC. If assessments truly reflected current costs, local governments would go into a operational tailspin.
Is this reason enough to keep assessments up? If you’re a city or county government unprepared to deal with massive services cuts or a political leader unwilling to propose a tax increase, probably so. If you’re a homeowner struggling to make ends meet, probably not.
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Sometimes I can’t tell who is more corrupt and inept; the county property tax appraisal bureaucrats or the property appraisers who “value” your home for purchase/refinance. What a racket.
The county’s appraised value of my house stayed exactly the same from 2008 to 2009, in the midst of the biggest housing meltdown in decades. While I realize CoD was shielded from the worst of the effects, it’s still remarkable that Dekalb saw no change in the value.
“If you’re a city or county government unprepared to deal with massive services cuts or a political leader unwilling to propose a tax increase, probably so.”
There is no difference between an increase in millage, on the one hand, and artificially inflating assessed values, on the other hand. Both are different paths to the same destination. Of course, as you suggest, one is easier for the politicians to slip by most people than the other. That’s because it is fundamentally dishonest.
More proof of Decatur’s favored nation status in the real estate world.