I assume you already know the assessment rate used by your municipality, and the equivalent market value you are being taxed for. If you purchased your home recently, and haven't made improvements that jacked up its assessment value (e.g., by pulling permits), the purchase price will almost surely be used as the basis. It will also, in my experience, be very difficult to claim your house is worth LESS than what your paid for it recently. You would need to show how it had declined -- i.e., a development that eliminated your water view, elimination of a bathroom or bedroom, etc etc. If you have been in the home for a long time, you need to compare the market value they are using with comparable values in your area. A real estate agent is best for help in that.

My mother's assessment was on auto pilot for years and just kept going up. Finally she appealed. The neighborhood was older, somewhat declined from what it had once been. They came to review the property. She had the records of home sales around her. They adjusted the value down by about a third.

I appreciate the responses.

Check with friends in your area (and their friends), as at least one or two, possibly several have been down that road recently and may well/will have valuable suggestions/advice to offer.

Have you built a record, list of friends over the years, and a channel to contact them? Sometimes sending an email, phoning, etc. may bring out this kind of information. It's easy to send an email to 100 people ... and often some interesting results appear.

And some may come to ask you about some of their issues, in which case you may not know, but some of your friends may ... and if you can offer some useful information, the recipient will owe you one.

ole joyful

The assessments are not based on your own property but on selling amount the houses that changed hands in the area before the assessment year. If you have a multi-million dollar house that sells in the area your assessment will go up. If your assessment is out of line with similar ones in your area that have sold ask contest the assessment. Then ask for it to be reviewed for reassessment. Hubby was on the board that reviewed assessments and this is what they did.

Here's a twist.

Next week the Pennsylvania Senate is to vote on a bill eliminating the property tax altogether. It would be replaced with an increase in the sales tax and state income tax by 1% each.

Naturally all the school districts in the Commonwealth are against this because they have free rein over their spending as the people cannot vote on the school budget, town budget etc. I left PA when the school district levied a 30% property tax hike in one year. The President of the school board said and I quote "Pay it or move". I go to realtor.com and look up my old town and there are homes listed for $150K with a $4500 property tax.

You need answers from people living near you. The assessment method and appeals vary around the USA, don't know about Canada.

I talked to a tax appraiser when he came to measure my home. Evidently the builder gave him the wrong size and their aerial camera picked it up. I let him in to measure and because I was nice to him he did not make it retroactive. We talked about getting an assessment being lowered and he told me that almost everyone that comes down gets it lowered. He said only 14% protest. My sister protested for 5 years, then she got a large raise in her taxes and couldn't get it lowered that time. LOL