Real Estate & Property Law

Assessed Value Compared to FMV

By Alan Ackerman

Business Week

Assessed at $148,400; bought for $280,000. Assessed at $172,200; bought for $345,000. Assessed at $440,000; bought for $2.8 million.

Yi's property assessed in 2007 at $88,200. The city is offering $100,000.

What's wrong with this picture?

City officials: Stop paying your attorney to duke this out in court and offer the man $200,000 plus the legal expenses he incurred so far to fend you off. Do it before those expenses climb any higher.

The recent Newport Daily News article in Virginia fails to recognize that the assessed value frequently is a gross underestimation of fair market value. Few people call the local assessor and say, 'you have under assessed me, so please raise my assessment so I can pay more taxes.' The assessment should not be used as part of the analysis because it is inadmissible information  due to it being unrelated to fair market value.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on June 19, 2009 (boomark / email).