Here’s a perfect example of some serious Kool-Aid intoxication: A county in Northeast Pennsylvania recently underwent a property value reassessment, and it appears they’re not connected with reality.
He said he bought his Dallas Township property in 1986 for $270,000. His new assessed value: $1.8 million.
Dewees said there’s no way his 36-acre property would fetch that. “There is absolutely no justification for the raise in value,” he said. Dewees said he’s done little to the 1900 farm house on Goodleigh Road since he purchased it — except for routine maintenance. His old assessed value was the equivalent of $436,200 which means his property value has more than tripled. Dewees said he is filing a formal appeal. “I will take it to the Supreme Court if necessary,” he said.
The appraiser also doesn’t seem technically equipped to do the job properly, either.
PPL’s nuclear power plant in Salem Township is technically top on the list of commercial values, at $248 million. However, the plant is bumped into the second through fourth positions because 21st Century broke it into three $82.6 million parcels.
21st Century officials said the split was necessary because the computer program wasn’t designed to handle numbers that large.
This article in particular highlights the higher end properties, but many ordinary people are being adversely affected by assessments that are too high. Is it any coincidence that an appraiser affiliated with a REAL ESTATE AGENCY did the assessment? The county government is probably not doing to complain because that means more revenue.
What happens when your tax bill triples and you can’t afford the increase?
There are even weirder cases around some of my neighbors in North East PA. I live on a private lake and one of my new neighbors recently purchased their home for $500,000 which was reassessed to $90,000, while my nearly equal home three houses away was reassessed at a higher value. They also reassessed an empty lot across the street which is part of the property. We used to pay $23 a year on the empty lot. It is 100ftx100ft and covered with trees, rocks, debris, etc. The small portion of property was reassessed at $16,500 dollars! Note that there is nothing on it at all.
opps, sorry for all the bold