Avondale & Decatur Residents May Receive Revised Tax Assessments
Decatur Metro | June 11, 2011Allison points out this WABE report that states up to 1500 DeKalb County residents could receive revised property tax assessment notices in the coming days due to assessments that are too low.
Calvin Hicks is the chief appraiser for the DeKalb County Board of Assessors. He says he learned homeowners in the Avondale Estates historic district may have received assessment notices that were too low after a number of them contacted his office in protest.
…”Quite frankly, I think in a couple of those, through human error they just didn’t get the values where they needed to be.”
Hicks says this was first year the county had to take distressed home sales into account and his office recently switched to new software application. In General, Hicks says it appears that home values in DeKalb County have declined to a lower level than a number of surrounding counties.
Parts of Avondale, Decatur and Candler Park are under review, according to the article.
Anyone else thinking Decatur might want to consider bringing tax assessments back in-house?
Latest from Decaturish
Um, what if we LIKE our low assessment?
Then you can’t say anything when CSD starts cutting para-pros left and right.
I was counting on all the new house in Oakhurst balancing out my low assessment!
Just kidding.
Oh, and if I thought my higher tax assessment was going towards para-professionals, that would be sweet–bittersweet, but sweet. However, if it’s going towards another promotion in Central Office when the teachers are getting a pittance of an increase after frozen salaries, I start to become like my no-government Dad and begrudge every penny. My biggest fear is that residents in Decatur will get frustrated enough with CSD that they passively aggressively move to private school and/or stop supporting adequate taxation. We could become Avondale Estates with nice homes, nice lake and pool, good commute to downtown or CDC/Emory but lousy public schools. (I realize that the DeKalb County School System is a whole other dynamic but it used to be the premiere public school system years ago, not CSD. It could flip again.)
Really. Who protests a LOW assessment? I’m readying my tar and feathers…
+ 1
Calvin Hicks was wrong. This was not the first year the county had to take distressed sales into account when determining appraisal values. Last year DeKalb did not take them into account initially when they sent out assessment notices. It was then brought to the attention of the appraisal department that state law required them to take distressed sales into account. The county then had to send out revised assessment notices one month later. Although it’s uncertain how many values were properly adjusted in that one month’s time.
It’s truly amazing that Hicks would say what he said. It makes me think he’s telling a bald faced lie or else he is incredibly ignorant.
I’m all for low taxes, believe me. But they need to be low through duly-enacted low millage rates, not because some people have received vastly under-market appraisals.
I posted on free-for-all Friday that my appraisal is over three times what I paid just 8 months ago. I have to appeal that, and in researching my appeal I looked up appraisals for comparable homes in Avondale Estates. Many truly are shockingly low. I won’t mention any particulars but I saw one modern and impecable 5100 square foot house appraised for only $315,000. That’s ridiculous. I saw another that sold for over 500k in Sept of last year appraised for under $200k. Now how DeKalb could screw up that badly is a mystery to me. But hey, they apparently think my house is worth way over $1 million, so I guess anything is possible.
This appraisal fiasco is yet another reason why Ellis’ proposed 4 mil increase should go nowhere. Start collecting the taxes actually due before you mess around with the rates.
How is this story in the ajc related to this?
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/fulton-official-personally-profits-930675.html
In the story the reporter indicates that the dekalb county assessor is also paid personally for services provided to some dekalb cities. Who does Decatur pay for tax services and how much do we pay?
Quoting from the story “DeKalb Tax Commissioner Claudia Lawson made $233,176 last year, including $77,506 for collecting taxes for cities.”