Downtown Real Estate Taxes

[FrigginGr8est]

I just got my real estate tax letter for my 1300 sq foot 2/2 unit in TPC from our friend Earl K. Wood, Tax Collector for 2006. They jumped from $4600 to $6500!!! This is nuts!! Where is all this money going? The schools are still rated at the bottom of the country. The homeless are still running around downtown. Crime is off the charts. I own a 3/2 2600 sq ft home in a New York City suburb on an acre and a half, worth 3 times as much as my TPC unit (my town is consistantly in the top 20 best places to live in Money magazine) and I dont pay much more. Anyone else get a huge tax increase? Anything we can do about this?

[sunshine]

Mine go from 1700 to 3700. Nothing u can do about it but to pay it.

[ryanmckibben]

That's not true. You can always contest it. Look at the estimated value (or whatever it is called in Orange County, it could also be taxable value or estimated value) if you believe this is too high, then contact the assesors office and contest it. Also make sure you have filed for homestead exemption.

[camstrang]

I'm with ya, FrigginGr8est, where's the money going? I live in Baldwin Park, and my property taxes jumped to more than $7,000. Sure would love to see some of that added revenue in action if I'm gonna be stuck paying it.

[Camillo Sitte]

Property tax rates haven't gone up very much, but property values have skyrocketed.

You can give your thanks to all of the area fix-n-flippers, all the people in Baldwin park willing to pay top dollar for construction quality on par with that of Avalon Park, everyone who was willing to pay $400,000 for a broken down 1200 sf 2/1 off of Summerlin, all of the amateur speculators paying premium prices for downtown condos then jacking up their asking prices, and developers asking $500/sf for condos in a city with an average annual income of less than $40k a year.

Increased property tax bills are one of the concomitant and unavoidable consequences of the "urban growth" activity that everyone here has been woo hoo-ing for the past few years...

[Chemmie]

Mine went up 50%.

These people are beotchs.

[ryanmckibben]

Property tax rates haven't gone up very much, but property values have skyrocketed.

You can give your thanks to all of the area fix-n-flippers, all the people in Baldwin park willing to pay top dollar for construction quality on par with that of Avalon Park, everyone who was willing to pay $400,000 for a broken down 1200 sf 2/1 off of Summerlin, all of the amateur speculators paying premium prices for downtown condos then jacking up their asking prices, and developers asking $500/sf for condos in a city with an average annual income of less than $40k a year.

Increased property tax bills are one of the concomitant and unavoidable consequences of the "urban growth" activity that everyone here has been woo hoo-ing for the past few years...

[neon9]

This is not the result of urban growth. How can you make that statement when in the previous paragraph you list the true culprit? If you want someone to blame, it's the get rich quick flippers that buy a property for $300k hold it for a week and then resell it for $375k. It artificually raises the price of real estate. I'm quite sure that market fundamentals did not change enough to warrent a price increase of $75k in one week. If Orlando is like the rest of Fla. (and it is) then you should see real estate prices return to normal, if they haven't already. That why I said contest your tax bill, look at the sales in your neighborhood in the last three month and see if the average price has been dropping. If you can provide support, you may just get your tax bill lowered.

[sunshine]

How and where do u challenge it? Besides voting for Jim Davis

[neon9]

How and where do u challenge it? Besides voting for Jim Davis

[bulldogger]

What kind of sense does that make?

[neon9]

It makes tax CENT$

[DelGreco]

You can call the Property Appraiser and ask them to mail you the forms, or at least they used to do that. It's several pages of paperwork and they do ask for justification, if I'm not mistaken. Maybe even photos? It's been a few years.

But for my neighbor, who has a lot and a half, and a pool, and a deck around it, and a house at least 1.5 the foot print of mine, and a storage shed, the assessment is only about 1.2 times mine. What kind of sense does that make?

[bulldogger]

I am surprised more people are not up in arms about the Save our Homes fiasco. You cannot have identical properties on the same block and the taxes for one is $7K and for the neighbor that bought 5 years earlier be only $2K....while he is sitting on a motherload of equity!

I guess an extra $500 a month on their mortgage doesn't mean much for most people in Orlando. Good for you! TAX TAX TAX.....the Democrats are now in charge!

[Altimike]

This is not the result of urban growth. How can you make that statement when in the previous paragraph you list the true culprit? If you want someone to blame, it's the get rich quick flippers that buy a property for $300k hold it for a week and then resell it for $375k. It artificually raises the price of real estate. I'm quite sure that market fundamentals did not change enough to warrent a price increase of $75k in one week. If Orlando is like the rest of Fla. (and it is) then you should see real estate prices return to normal, if they haven't already. That why I said contest your tax bill, look at the sales in your neighborhood in the last three month and see if the average price has been dropping. If you can provide support, you may just get your tax bill lowered.

[MAntoniazzi]

40% of the people that bought homes in 2004-2005 were investors or should i say Speculators, they drove the prices up with escalatory clauses, when true families that needed and wanted a home were caught in the middle of it!