Art Real Estate Group Video Blog

If you think your home’s tax assessment is too high, you can always appeal it. Selling a home? Get a free home value report Buying a home? Search all homes for sale As a homeowner, tax assessments are something you have to deal with on every year. Upon finding out that their property tax has increased, many people simply throw their assessment in the shredder and accept the increase without giving it a second thought. Don’t do that! If you read your assessment carefully, you’ll see that you have a right to appeal it. If you’re concerned that your assessment might not be accurate, you can save hundreds—maybe even thousands—of dollars by appealing it. Talk to a real estate professional first to get a second opinion of whether the assessment is inaccurate.  If you decide you want to appeal, you can’t just call the county and tell them they’re charging you too much. You have to make a strong case to have your assessment reevaluated, and there’s a process you must follow, which is another reason to call a real estate professional (such as myself) to help you. When you make your case, you and your Realtor can find some bad comps to lower the assessment.  Also, remember that there is no direct correlation between your home’s tax assessment and its market price.  “ If you read your assessment carefully, you’ll see that you have a right to appeal it. ” In some instances, it’s good to have a high tax assessment. If you plan on selling soon, for example, you don’t need to worry about a high tax assessment—you’re leaving soon anyway. Some buyers look at tax assessments when home shopping and assume that it’s good to make an offer above the home’s tax value, so in that case, the higher your tax assessment, the better.  I actually worked with a seller once whose home had such low tax assessment that we had to call the county and have them increase it while their home was on the market. This client already failed to sell their home once with a different agent because all the buyers were comparing the home’s tax value to its list price and assuming it was way overpriced. In reality, it was just an error on the part of the county.  So before you accept a high tax assessment, call your real estate professional and see if you can save some money by appealing it.  As always, if you have any questions about this or any other real estate topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.

Selling a home? Get a free home value report Buying a home? Search all homes for sale For this market update, I’ve compiled the data from the Northern Virginia, D.C., and Maryland real estate markets because all of the numbers are so similar. Here’s what you need to know.  Let’s start by looking at what the real estate market is doing today. The median sold price in the D.C. Metro is up by 2.91%. Although there is a 17% appreciation rate right now in Arlington, it’s from a much smaller sample size. The average days on market is down by 18.97%—from 58 days to 47 days. You might think 47 days is a long time, but this statistic takes into account luxury homes, which typically take much longer to sell.  “ Our inventory remains at an all-time low. ” For attached units such as condos and townhomes, their closed units are down 3.27%. The sales for detached units, or single-family homes, is up by 3.07%. Our inventory remains at an all-time low, sales have remained steady, and homes are still appreciating at a steady pace. Affordability, however, has taken a bit of a toll on the market as well as an uncertain economic future. Keep in mind that most recessions are typically good for real estate markets. With the exception of the last recession, which was caused by real estate, home prices have appreciated during recessions many times in the past. If you have any questions for me about the market or about real estate in general, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.