Sponsored by the Concerned Citizens of Corrales & hosted by Steve & Penny Komadina, Sandoval County Assessor Tom Garcia did his best to clear up the issues surrounding property values.
Tom Garcia has spoken out publicly about voting against the “fix” for Tax Lightning. Instead Garcia is in favor of getting Sandoval County residents to the “current and correct” property values, and then applying the 3% cap. Before I get into a definition of “current and correct” – let’s talk about Tax Lightning.
Tax Lightning, as explained by Garcia, applies to properties that have changed hands in the past year whose property value wasn’t up to market value. With the 3% caps there were more then a few homes that fell under this category.
In an effort to explain, let me see if a real life example helps… Let’s say you built or bought your home 20 some odd years ago for $150,000.00 (just an arbitrary number). You’ve been through the down turn in the market and you are looking to sell your home now. Based on our current housing market lets say our Comparative Market Analysis shows that your $150,000.00 20 year old home can be sold for $275,000.00 – you with me so far? Okay, so now Mr. & Mrs. Buyer write an offer on your home and 30-45 days later you are handing over the keys to your home. At this point the County Assessors office looks at the sales price of the property – remember that $275,000 – and then value and tax the property based on that figure. The Tax Lightening part comes in here – Mr. & Mrs. Seller were locked in on their 3% increase in value per valuation period, and now Mr. & Mrs. Buyer are bringing the value to the forefront and being taxed on that value. There can be a variance in between what Mr. & Mrs. Seller were paying and what Mr. & Mrs. Buyer will pay. Make sense?
So that is the law that is currently on the books. What Tom Garcia is in favor of is the concept of “current and correct”. How this law would work is that everyone in the Sandoval County, and the rest of the state, would be re-appraised by the Assessor’s Office. This would allow market values to be determined – which would reflect what current buyers & sellers are creating. In this way the Assessor’s Office will be able to take the market conditions and use a very basic set of criteria to measure against. First they will group homes by like qualities. Such as, design, components, depreciation, and size. Then they will determine how much per square foot these like properties average.
“WAIT”, you yell, “WHAT ABOUT SHORT SALES? WHAT ABOUT FORECLOSURES?” Like my favorite teacher used to say, “you’re getting ahead of me and we’ll get there.”
Okay, so back to “current and correct”, once these price per square foot averages are determined, Garcia estimates this to be completed by 2014, the values of the homes will be reassessed, and taxed accordingly.
Okay, distressed properties… The question that was posed at the gathering was stated as such, “Won’t that give those residents who purchase a short sale or foreclosed home an advantage based on what they purchased the home for?” The Assessor’s office fielded the question, and used the following example:
Let’s say we have 10 properties that fit into a grouping based on the Assessor’s Office. 7 of the homes are “Arm’s Length” Properties, that is to say they are not distressed property sales or title transfers between family members. The 3 remaining properties are given a weighted average for their property value. 70% of the “Arm’s Length” average value + 30% of the distressed properties average value.
The system, as outlined by Tom Garcia, allows that their appraisers may make some mistakes, and encourages its citizenry to be involved in the process. If you feel your home was overvalued, Garcia asks that you please go through the protest period. If you miss the protest period, you can still file a request for refund. The Sandoval County Assessor’s Office offers this piece of advice if you are going to be protesting your home’s value. The best item you can bring with you to the Assessor’s Office is a 3rd party appraisal that is no more than 2 years old – OR – a Comparative Market Analysis from your Realtor®.
So when are these re-appraisals going to be taking place? They will be posting the schedule on their website at: www.sandovalcounty.com — you can also find a host of other tools and FAQs. What Tom Garcia and his staff would like you to be aware of is that anyone claiming to be doing a re-appraisal on behalf of the county will have an id tag (either on a blue lanyard or attached to their clothing), they will be wearing a blue Sandoval County t-shirt, will travel in groups of two, and will never ask to come in your home. They will not be calling before hand to schedule an appointment, and will be roaming around the exterior of your property to get measurements.
I think that covers the key points. If you have questions please feel free to contact me or the Sandoval County Assessor’s Office. We are all willing to help you figure out what this means for you specifically. The Assessor’s Office will even get you a copy of your current property record card.
Leave a Reply