You can appeal down to comparable market value in a falling market.
In a rising market, the Assessor can adjust upward to market value, not to exceed assessed value when you purchased the property (generally purchase price), plus 2% compounded annually since. if the market is rising but not fully recovered from the peak, then your assessment might something lower than the maximum, unless you purchased before the runup.
What you owe on the property due to refinance has no bearing on the assessment.
if your build and improved the property over time, the formula is more complicated.[/quote]
Yes, brian, I appealed in 1994 as well and received about a $48K reduction in assessed value. But by the time our ’98/99 FY tax bill had arrived, the assessor had jacked our assessment back up to within 6K of the appealed value. At that point, there was nothing we could do about it.
Prop 8 allows them to assess higher or lower and also to “restore” an appealed value in just one tax year if market conditions dictate that it is warranted. Of course, these types of adjustments can, and most often do, exceed the 2% allowed by Prop 13.
