[Chat] Assessments drop substantially, but most of us will see tax increases

[Stephen J Gewirtz]

According to the Sun this morning, 
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/real-estate/bs-bz-maryland-property-assessments-20101228,0,7612427,full.story 
assessments have dropped an average of 22% for the one third of Maryland 
properties (including all in Charles Village) that were reassessed this 
year.  My own assessment dropped 30%.

If you want to check your own assessment or that of one of your 
neighbors, use this link: http://sdatcert3.resiusa.org/rp_rewrite/  I do 
not know how long it will take for us to receive our new assessments by 
snail mail, but they are available now online.

For those of us who have lived here a while, taxes will still go up.  
For example, three years ago, my assessment a little more than tripled.  
But because of the homestead tax credit (which applies for owner 
occupied principal residences and which shows up on your tax bill as a 
city or state tax credit), your effective assessment can only go up by 
4% per year compounded for the city tax, and by 10% per year compounded 
for the state tax.  In my own case, my city tax for the coming year will 
be based on an effective assessment of about 17% more than it was four 
years earlier, even though my assessment is still more than double what 
it was six years ago.  And my state tax will be based on an effective 
assessment of about 46% more than it was four years ago.  Those figures 
represent increases of 4% and 10% per year compounded for four years.

On the other hand, those who bought their houses fairly recently will 
see a substantial drop in their taxes.  They most likely were reassessed 
when they bought their houses based on what they paid for their houses.  
After a year, they could receive the homestead tax credit, but it would 
have effect only if they were reassessed at some point for substantially 
more than they had paid for their houses.  Their effective assessments 
as of last July 1 were probably close to their most recent reassessments 
from 3 or fewer years ago, and they will see their taxes drop.

By the way, increases in assessments when properties are reassessed as 
part of the 3 year cycle (such as the current reassessment) are phased 
in over 3 years, but decreases take effect in full for the following tax 
bill.

Thanks to Mary Pat Clarke, the city homestead tax credit (with a maximum 
increase of 4% per year compounded) began to be applied to the CVCBD 
surtax 3 years ago (and some of us got refunds for the previous 3 years) 
when it was determined that we should have gotten the credit all along.  
Your effective assessment for CVCBD surtax purposes is the same as your 
effective assessment for city tax purposes.

If you have any questions, I will be glad to try to answer them.  I can 
tell you that the city told CVCBD to expect a decrease in surtax revenue 
(because those who bought their houses fairly recently will see a 
substantial decrease in their surtaxes).  What the drop in assessments 
will mean for the Baltimore City budget for the fiscal year beginning 
July 1, 2011 is probably not going to be pleasant to contemplate.

Steve