You should have received your 2012 real estate assessment from Arlington County by now (or should soon). You can also find them online now: Arlington Real Estate Assessment Property Search. Here are some important things you should know about what they mean:
-Values are assessed using sales data from June 2009 to June 2010, meaning sales that are 18 months old. The value they’ve assigned is a lagging indicator of the market. The market in 2009-2010 was the beginning of our recovery, so sales were still modest and slow, but that value does NOT represent market value if you were to sell.
-The county has released the following stats about their values:
- 32% increased
- 46% remain unchanged
- 22% declined
-The 2012 tax rate has not been set yet for the county, so it still remains to be seen whether your actual property taxes will increase or decrease based on this assessment.
-Your tax payments are due twice per year: June 15 and October 5
-You CAN challenge the value, if you think it’s wrong (whether it’s low or high), but the appeal deadline is March 1.
- If you’re in a condo or townhouse and you’re thinking of appealing your assessment, consider this: when you go to sell your property and someone looks up your tax history, they’re going to wonder why yours is so different from your neighbors. If it’s low, they’ll likely ask “what’s wrong with it?” Just some food for thought.