Has everyone seen this map that DeKalb commissioner Jeff Rader sent around yesterday? It’s like the Holy Grail for anyone and everyone perplexed or angry about DeKalb recent property tax assessments! You’ll want to open the PDF to zoom in.
A cursory glance at the City o’ Decatur shows a good amount of red (i.e. increases).
Latest from Decaturish
smalltowngal
Trudy
J_T
GM
J_T
J_T
Jessamine13
Jessamine13
Lee Coursey
J_T
Parker Cross
Scott
Parker Cross
BenJT
Michael
Great – there goes my productivity level at work this morning
Orange. Could be worse, I guess.
I had mapped out my area when the 2012 first came out and it looked just like what’s on this map so these data seem valid. But they are the first set of 2012 rassessments, not the second one when many properties received a reassessment back to last year’s value. If the second were included in the map, it would have a lot more off white (no change) properties and less red or orange.
By the way, this map is slightly deceptive because the same color is used for residential properties with no change in assessment and for areas not assessed at all (e.g. parks, downtown, whatever). Decatur would look a lot worse if that weren’t the case. Of the assessed properties, there’s a lot more red/orange than blue/green.
Wow, we Winnona Parkians (is that even a word?) are seriously red.
I do believe that gives us carte blanche to be elitist and discriminatory to those outside the city limits.
Winnona Parkers sounds much more elitist. Winnona Parkians sounds too close to Walmartians.
Would rather be a Winnona Parker than a Winona Ryder.
I’d rather Ryder than Parker.
I usually Ryder then Parker…my motorcycle, that is.
I think I am too young and innocent for this conversation
You almost made me laugh Fresca through my nose, Nell…
ouch! looks like my next door neighbor went up while most of the rest of our street went down
Good ol Dekalb…tax free work space for them in our city, and our citizens rising value = revenue for them…Dekalb county sure has a sweet deal.
There is not a shortage of properties suitable for redevelopment in Decatur. (See parking lots on Church, Commerce or Trinity.) Decatur has never been particularly successful in the office market. Who would fill the office space in downtown if the courthouse and government buildings were located elsewhere? How much daytime sidewalk activity would Decatur have without the government workers? I’d also imagine that a number of lawyers are located in Decatur for the convenience of being close to the courthouse. Decatur clearly receives benefits from county employment and facilities located in downtown. All local governments have some loss in revenue because of tax exempt status. The CDC, IRS, Va Hospital, Emory University, various hospitals and non-profit agencies are located in deKalb without paying any funds to local government. Fortunately, the jobs at these iinstitutions provide a significant benefit to the economy and the spending of these employees ripple through the local economy to benefit many small local businesses.
That’s the market. Decatur housing values are up. Way up. That’s why you’re still having tear-downs and new construction, because people are willing to pay $600k for a house in Decatur.
Check out Winter Avenue on Zillow. (Or just check out your own address — Google the address followed by Zillow and it should be the first listing.) This street is on the border — the west side is Atlanta, the east side Decatur.
Zillow lists a fully-renovated home on the Atlanta side of the street as being worth $241k, and an unrenovated home across the street as being worth $314k. That home — 238 Winter — is presently unoccupied, for sale, and I believe you will find the asking price is higher than the Zillow estimate.
Point is, you pay property taxes based on valuations. Yours are rising. Fast.
One more thing. Decatur only pays DeKalb County taxes for a limited number of functions. School taxes for Decatur go to the Decatur City Schools. Other city functions are also provided by the City, like police. You pay more, but you get more, and that includes more property value.
So no whinging.
But I love to whing! Seriously, I think it’s spotty around Decatur in terms of values going up. Oakhurst prices are soaring because they started lower and the area has more room for tear down profits. On the north side, it varies. In my neighborhood, I regularly peek at the real estate flyers and open houses and prices don’t seem to have changed at all for houses in the $300-$400,000 range. Just sitting there for 5 years. There’s some $600-$700,000 tear downs and total remakes but not a whole lot. Your basic house with no major improvements is sitting stable price-wise.
If you zoom in on the map closely, you will find that residential areas in the northeast and northwest sides have gone down in value. The biggest increases are in the Winona Park area and southwest Oakhurst, along Oakview.
When there are teardowns happening, it means that land values are strong. We just had a 100 year old house on Park Place torn down, a big ‘un. The old “Bussey Mansion,” I called it. It’s an empty lot that was on the market for $180k due to the home’s condition.
Oh, the home I mentioned at 238 Winter is listed at $250k http://www.victorwarrenproperties.com/products/decatur.html but it’s finding no takers. At that price it too may be a teardown candidate, because it hasn’t been renovated in 40 years.
A few years ago there was a preference for fixing up these old homes. But since the effort to create an Historic District for Oakhurst was killed by the real estate interests — “Historic District is NOT the answer!” — the answer has been teardowns. Hope those who blindly opposed the district are happy about that.
Jesus.
That red area next to the “2,” that’s listed as “over 20% increase?” I live there. I wish it was only a 21 or 22% increase. According to the good folks at Dekalb County, my land value increased 43% last year. AND my house value went up 17%.
Now my 1100 square foot house is valued at twice as much per square foot as my neighbor, whose house is twice as large. But apparently worth half as much.