Garys vs. Winnebago County, round four

September 9th, 2009 at 12:50pm Alex Gary

I just dropped off what is becoming our annual challenge of our property tax assessment.

My house is located in the Loves Park section that is in Rockford Township. That township had a multiplier of 3 percent, meaning the assessor’s office basically took what the fair market value of your house in 2008 and added 3 percent.

I looked up our assessment and saw that the county believes our property is worth nearly $132,000.

We’ve challenged our assessment on three other occasions. We’ve won twice and lost once.

I am fairly confident of this year’s challenge. We tried to refinance our house earlier this year and as part of the process paid $300 for an appraisal. That appraisal came back with an estimated fair market value of $124,000.

Since the appraisal was completed in May and the assessment is what the house was worth on Jan. 1, 2009, it’s not automatic that the board of review will accept the appraisal. But all four of the comparables houses the appraisor used were sold in 2008 so I’m confident the appraisal will win out.

Ironically, because the appraisal came in so low we were denied the loan. We owe about $125,000 on the house. We had to borrow heavily in 2007 after the Labor Day flood to repair our basement. Now, that appraisal may save us that $300 back in taxes next year.

The deadline to challenge your assessment is Sept. 14.

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