The real estate bubble and property taxes.
 

If you bought your home before the bubble burst you're probably over paying on your property taxes. I don't know how other states work but in CA they can only raise your taxes by 2% each year. But they do that automatically without regard to how market is actually performing.

The good news is that you can request that your property be reassesed! You may have seen/heard commercials for companies that will help you do this for a fee. Those people are scam artists because all you have to do (at least in SD) is fill out a form and mail it in to the county. There's no fee for this to be done!

For my GC pals in SD County this is the form that you need.
http://arcc.co.san-diego.ca.us/arcc/docs/calrev.pdf The form is due by Friday, May 30th. So get to it already!

If you bought property during the boom I strongly urge you to contact your local assesor's department to find out how can save money on your property taxes! :D

I had one of my rentals re-assessed last year. But, I had to go through an appeals process. It wasn't as simple as calling the county and scheduling an appointment for their appraiser to reassess it.

First came the form that they only took once a year, then it took several follow-up phone calls pressuring them to move it to the next level, and finally came my appointment with the appeal board. I was the only property being appealed that day that was not represented by legal counsel; I thought I was doomed. But, I was very prepared with pictures, comparables, a market analysis and a full write up with exhibits.

After I won my appeal, I scheduled the appointment with the appraiser, which took a matter of 2 hours. Start to finish was approximately 5 months.

The good news, I will save about $1200 each year on taxes. The bad news, I would like to sell it, but the property is still in the tank. Sad, because it sits right on Lake Erie and has fabulous views.

Everybody I know had their assessments go down this year without asking.

Those of you who live or own property in Florida, make sure to check out the new laws being passed before re-assessing! They just passed a huge property tax amendment in Jan. Though I am not sure to what extent this covers...

Watch out when you refinance your home. It may be regressive towards your needs. A few people in CT and Mass tried it for a lower interest rate with a lower mortgage and it actually brought up the mortgage. I own a home in CT and I pay $349 a month just in property taxes. When the value of my house declines property taxes stay the same. The taxes are high because the value of homes in my area fall below the state median. If the house values went up the taxes would fall. Sucks, and I cant sell cuz the foreclosure rate in my state and New England is so high, its also bringing property values down. Even the rich suffer esp in the Hamptons in NY where 120 houses are listed as foreclosures, 90% of which are valued at $1 million +

This is how it works where I live too. There is even a blip about it on the property tax invoice you receive. I can't believe people are scamming on this - but then again, I can.