Real estate assessments matter to market value insofar as they impact the psychological perception of value.

Do Real Estate Assessments Matter?

What do real estate assessments mean?

From a visitor:

… tidbit of info. – Nelson Co. assesses real estate every 5 years. I just received the assessment of our second home in Wintergreen. In 2006 it assessed at $599K, now $385K — down 36%

2012 is going to prove very interesting in the Charlottesville region.

The Washington Post reports (hat tip: Calculated Risk)

“We’ll see, over the next few years, the real impact of the recession and housing crisis on local governments,” said Andrew Reschovsky, a professor of public affairs and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who has studied the effects of the recession on city finances. “I think the case can be made that we have not yet seen the worst of the impact on local governments. . . . That seems to be accelerating.” … The worst may be yet to come.

“That storm has not yet hit,” Frank Alexander, a professor and housing law expert at Emory University, said of the looming decline in property tax revenues, which he and others agree will last years. “It’s beginning in 2011, but it’s really going to hit in 2012 and 2013.”

For some context, see the story I wrote in January of 2011 – Charlottesville Assessments are Coming! Assessments are Coming! (2011 version).

There is only so much that the localities can raise rates and modify budgets. At some point, services are likely to be cut … dramatically.

One note:

It would be great if the City of Charlottesville offered a GIS solution for the public, as every other locality does. Sadly, they continue to be negligent.