The new State of Maryland property assessment notice arrived in the mail today. If anyone else is planning to appeal their new property values, please post here or e-mail me at rob@vees.net to coordinate efforts and share information.

Our home climbed from an actual sale price of $121k in 2002 to appraised value of $198k today, or about 8.5% per year over six years. From its sale in 1992 at $102k to my purchase in 2002 the price of the home raised by only $18,150, or 1.6% per year over ten years.

I can't imagine that I would get that much on the open market today (if it were possible to sell at all, as some of you have already found out), but comparable properties that have sold went for no less than $200k in the last 12 months, so it's hard for me to pull an example from recent local real estate transactions that proves the new valuation is poorly founded.

Obviously some of this has to do with the "housing bubble" and sub-prime issues driving up prices everywhere to levels not directly tied to actual property or dwelling values. In reality, this sort of property value appreciation is unreasonable.

Keep in mind that a high property estimate makes your property even harder to sell because while your own assessed rate will be "phased in" over a series of years, the new assessment would immediately reflect the rate paid by the new owner. Since many lenders calculate a mortgage payment to include property taxes, an increase in tax rates decreases their purchasing ability by whatever the tax adds to their monthly payments.