Home Property Tax

[jeebuss31]

Hi everyone, we just closed our house 1/15/09 and our house hasn't been assessed by the county yet.Currently, we're paying on land taxes until they come out. Let's say after a year the county state your home is worth $100,000. Would we have to pay the property tax back to our closing date? I thought once it's assessed that's the starting point and that last year we just owe land tax because our house isn't assessed by the county.

[Seeker]

Actually no. There's usually a supplemental property tax that you need to pay, when property changes title/ownership.

[swanson719]

Part of our closing costs for the escrow account was to cover the rest of last years property taxes, and then we pay this years with our mortgage each month with the homeowners insurance. The county has yet to assess our home value, which they shouldn't have to do, considering the assessors job is to give fair market value, which is dictated by what you just paid for it.

[Seeker]

Each and every time "title" changes, the property will undergo assessment. This is true absolutely everywhere. If a neighbor's property is sold, your property will "share" in that tax burden be it negative or positive. It's possible for a place to sell for 350k near where I live, and my tax burden will increase even though my place may not be worth that much money.

Closing costs and escrow are always "estimates" that people strive to make accurate, but rarely are totally accurate because the "unknowns" are specific to location.

Taxes are estimates and in these days of lowering values and the purchase of bankrupt holdings from banks, etc. There's likely to be more taxes owed than just the assessed value at the time of closing. That's why when you first purchase a property, you may get a one-time Supplemental Tax bill.

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I may be answering another question though. Because I'm not sure what is being asked here jeebuss31.

If you closed 1/15/09, then you shouldn't owe any house property taxes for 2008. If you paid 2008 land taxes, I'm not sure why you would have to do that either.... since you didn't own the land in 2008?

Unless the land was part of a bankruptcy or someone not paying the taxes prior to your purchase and you wanted to have a clear title to the land in the government's eyes ????

Your house tax assessment should give you property taxes due for 2009 inclusive of the house -- but that would come later in 2009, not now.

Was the house was just built on this land?

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We (DH & I) own some land in another state, currently an empty lot. We paid past due property taxes that had not been paid by the previous owner as they were in bankruptcy proceedings. After we paid for the land itself, we made the choice to pay the back taxes on it and clear the title, since that was in our best interest.

And we've been paying property taxes on our empty lot ever since. When we build, if we build, there will be an assessment and "improvements" to the land (housing)... that we will have to pay when that time comes.

[tripods68]

If this was in state of california, home tax assessment are done between Jan 1 to March 31st. You won't know your tax assessment until this fall when those letters start going out. That's how I understand it, i could be wrong.

[jeebuss31]

Each and every time "title" changes, the property will undergo assessment. This is true absolutely everywhere. If a neighbor's property is sold, your property will "share" in that tax burden be it negative or positive. It's possible for a place to sell for 350k near where I live, and my tax burden will increase even though my place may not be worth that much money.

Closing costs and escrow are always "estimates" that people strive to make accurate, but rarely are totally accurate because the "unknowns" are specific to location.

Taxes are estimates and in these days of lowering values and the purchase of bankrupt holdings from banks, etc. There's likely to be more taxes owed than just the assessed value at the time of closing. That's why when you first purchase a property, you may get a one-time Supplemental Tax bill.

---

I may be answering another question though. Because I'm not sure what is being asked here jeebuss31.

If you closed 1/15/09, then you shouldn't owe any house property taxes for 2008. If you paid 2008 land taxes, I'm not sure why you would have to do that either.... since you didn't own the land in 2008?

Unless the land was part of a bankruptcy or someone not paying the taxes prior to your purchase and you wanted to have a clear title to the land in the government's eyes ????

Your house tax assessment should give you property taxes due for 2009 inclusive of the house -- but that would come later in 2009, not now.

Was the house was just built on this land?

---

We (DH & I) own some land in another state, currently an empty lot. We paid past due property taxes that had not been paid by the previous owner as they were in bankruptcy proceedings. After we paid for the land itself, we made the choice to pay the back taxes on it and clear the title, since that was in our best interest.

And we've been paying property taxes on our empty lot ever since. When we build, if we build, there will be an assessment and "improvements" to the land (housing)... that we will have to pay when that time comes.

The house was built and we closed on 1/15/09. I figured in 12/09, we would just owe the last 6 months of land taxes bc the house hasnt been assessed. And in 2010, when the house is assessed at (let's say $100,000) then we start owing tax on $100,000 house and not land taxes. Or would they make us owe for the true prop. tax when we closed the house? I just need to know when to put that extra money aside so that when the bill comes I'm prepare to pay for it.