Homeowners received a letter last week (unless it was lost in the mail)  that will indicate whether or not a change was made to their assessment from 2018 to 2019 which may affect their 2020 property taxes. Every year every resident will receive an assessment notice which basically advises you how much your house is worth.  Assessments can change due to many factors.  The most common is due to market trends.  These are small percentage differences from year to year as a result of how the market fluctuates.  This trend may go up or down from the previous year.  The good part about a trend is that everyone in the neighborhood receives the same percentage, so that alone should not greatly impact next year’s taxes.  Other reasons an assessment can change could be as a result of improvements on the property that had occurred over the past year.  Assessments can also be reduced because of a previous year’s grievance, market trend is showing a downturn or the Assessor had determined the Assessment was improper.

If the owner feels like the assessment should be different than what is represented on the letter for the 2019 tentative assessment, they can file a grievance between June 1-18th.  They would have to supply proof that the Town’s assessment is higher than the owners estimate of market value (what a property feels they can sell their house for today).  The way to do this is to supply a market analysis from a realtor, a recent appraisal, or if recently sold, a deed or contract of sale along with an appraisal.  The phone of the assessor's office is 989-1520. 

I hope that this info will be helpful to you and your family.  Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

PAUL FEINER