Time to Challenge Assessed Home Values in ABQ

Bernalillo County Assessor Karen Montoya will mail out Notice of Valuations for Real Property and Mobile Homes on Thursday, March 1, 2012.The Assessor’s Office will also begin its annual protest period for Real Property and Mobile Homes on March 1st. Subsequent to the mail out of the Notices of Values, property owners will have the opportunity to file a valuation protest within 30 days of the actual date of mailing.




How do you know if you should file a protest? I can check for you or you can estimate based on market value trends. The statistics for yearend show that the values went down about 6% last year. It varies by area but that is a rule of thumb you can use to compare last year's assessment with the one you get for 2011.



If you want me to help you decide give me a call and I will do a free market analysis for you. Also, you can go to my website and click on Market Snapshot to see what the values were for similar homes sold in 2011. If you decide to protest, I can provide you with three comparable homes that have sold which you will need for the protest. If that doesn't work, a good friend of mine is an attorney who specializes in protests. Give me a call and let me know how I can help you save money on taxes.

PROPERTY TAX ALERT

The Bernalillo County Assessors office is about to undertake a campaign to adjust the property taxes on non-owner occupied properties. The adjustments that have already been made have been quite discomforting.

The way in which they will be determining "non-owner occupied" is by whether the property tax account does or does not claim "head of household". If the property does not claim "head of household", it will be assumed to be non-owner occupied.

A protest option will be available if a property is designated incorrectly but who wants to go through that! Be sure to call the Tax Assessor to declare head of household or call me and I can check to see if you have that designation.

HEAD OF FAMILY EXEMPTIONS

In New Mexico, a homeowner can apply for the Head of Family exemption which allows a $2000 exemption from the taxable value of the residential property. This applies only if the home is the primary residence and not vacant property, now a second home nor a commercial holding. Owners of manufactured homes are eligible too. The exemption doesn’t mean that $2000 is subtracted from their property tax but that the value of the property is reduced by $2000 for taxation purposes so about $80 per year is saved. The application form is issued by the County Tax Assessor’s office or can be done by phone. The exemption is for the next taxable year, and cannot be applied retroactively.
Other exemptions are $4000 for Veterans’ when a certificate of eligibility is provided from the NM Veterans’ Service Commission. Homeowners over 65 or disabled can apply for a Value Freeze program if their modified gross household income is $32,000 or less.
Who qualifies as “Head of Family”? A married person, but only one spouse can be listed. A widow or widower. A person furnishing more than one-half the cost of support of a related person. A single person and a member of a condominium association who pays the property tax.
It is a good idea anyway to check annually on www.bernco.gov under Assessor to make sure the ownership information is accurate and to see that the exemption is noted.

TAX LIGHTENING HEATS UP

So after two District Court judges ruled that the "tax lightening" regulation was unconstitutional, now they have apparently been intimidated by the Governor who wants a constitutional amendment proposition to make it legal. One of the judges is sending it to the Court of Appeals after saying she wouldn't to get a confirming opinion. In the meantime, I guess she is not going to rollback taxes in 2010 for those who have bought in the County of Bernalillo since 2002. And her attorney just quit in the light of 2000 plus filed appeals by these same taxpayers.

LIGHTS OUT FOR TAX LIGHTENING

This just in: Bernalillo County Tax Assessor plans to roll back property values for homes sold since 2002 to save tax payers thousands of dollars in the future. My friend, Stephanie Dzur, got this ball rolling when she brought a lawsuit against the Assessor claiming that increasing taxes of buyers with no limits versus 3% annual increase limits on others was unconstitutional. She won and then another taxpayer won with a different judge and just as Stephanie, an attorney, is collecting hundreds of taxpayers to file another lawsuit, the Assessor acts. Apparently, she doesn't want all those lawsuits and does see that the law is unlawful so is reversing it. It remains to be seen what the State will do and my other friend, Rick Homans who heads up the State's Tax and Revenue Dept. seems to be processing all this. The implications of the loss of revenue in the county and for the State is significant so this is a real catch-22 situation. Way to go, Stephanie.

TAX LIGHTNING STRUCK DOWN

Hurray for my good friend, Stephanie Dzur, who took on the Tax Assessor and won!! She protested the "tax lightning" regulation as unconstitutional. The judge agreed that bumping up the property taxes on properties when a purchase occurs is not fair. For other homeowners, taxes can only go up 3% a year, but for buyers the increase is unlimited. I listed a property yesterday where the taxes were $700 when he bought the home two years ago. The increase was $2200 per year a more than threefold increase which amounted to almost $250 per month. He's selling the house and moving out of State. Shame, as we say in Africa! For more information, check out this link: http://noproposition13innm.blogspot.com/

QUESTION ON CHALLENGING TAXES

Thank you for the question on my post on the tax increases. The question was if a home was purchased in 2008 and taxes have increased, what recourse does one have. I asked Stephanie Dzur, Esq, who is the expert on this and here is her reply:

As you know, you can challenge the value assessed as being excessive, if it is indeed higher than comparable sales; or, challenge the tax scheme itself which some local attorneys believe violates the New Mexico Constitution. This challenge is to the fact that residential property is assessed in a discriminatory manner treating new and old home owners differently. They are probably going to bring a declaratory judgment action this year in Bernalillo County District Court on behalf of taxpayers who closed on their homes in 2008. If such is the case, info will be provided to people like Judy who are blogging about the real estate market.

A taxpayer can EITHER bring a protest or a challenge in District Court, but not both. The protest deadline is a very short time after you receive your assessment. In Bernco I believe the deadline is May 1st. The deadline for filing in District Court is January of 2010. Does this help?

Lightning Tax About to Be Eliminated

Initiated by my good friend, Stephanie Dzur who lead a formal challenge to the property tax increase on her home, the State Legislature has passed on the the State Senate two bills to curb the lightning tax. One will limit the tax increase to 20% for buyers of homes compared to the unlimited tax increase they are hit with now. And the second bill requires that title companies and realtors disclose the possibility of the tax increase. Well, hey I was doing that already and lost a sale to a CA buyer just last month because of it. This is fair legislation and a step in the right direction.

NEW CAPITAL GAINS TAX EXEMPTIONS

From an attorney friend of mine:
You know the tax law that says your home is exempted from capital gains taxes when it serves as your personal residence two out of the five years prior to a sale? It looks like that has been changed.
The "Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008" eliminates the capital gains exclusion for the portion of gain that comes while a home serves as a vacation or rental property. The provision is effective Jan. 1, 2009.
That means for houses sold after 1/1/2009 you would have to pay capital gains taxes on a portion of the gains. If you lived in it for 2 years and rented it out for 2 years you would pay capital gains on 50% of the gain you made! Under current law, you would not.

Tax Hikes for New Homeowners in ABQ

New homeowners are being hit with a tax increase that is angering many who feel it is unfair. Until a couple of years ago, the assessor did not have access to the purchase price of a home. Their estimates of assessed value were in many cases, way off base. Now that NM is a disclosure state, the title company has to tell the assessor what the home sold for. This is a problem if the price is significantly greater than the value assumed by the assessor. Also, there is a 3% cap on rate increases UNLESS the home is sold, in which case all bets are off. This then is the issue with many saying that such an unpredictable and uncontrolled rate hike is unfair and will discourage people from moving here. There will be more on this issue as politicians step in to find more acceptable solutions.