Ok. With the conflicting information, I just went to the horse’s mouth. Jessica at the recorder’s office explained it to me this way:
Yes, you will pay the previous sales price bill if higher AT ESCROW. It takes 6 to 9 months b/c they’re busy for the assessor to come out and “officially” assess your house based on the price you paid for it and other homes that have sold in the area (comps) Then they issue a new bill. If the value of the home is less, then technically it won’t be a bill, but a CREDIT.
So, this makes more sense. Since more and more homes are selling for less, say a particular area, each home sale drags down the other, you certainly would have the comps to justify the price reduction.
Yes, you will have to pay the higher tax, but you’ll get it back once they get around to assessing it properly. She didn’t make it sound like a re-assessment, either. It was an assessment of your house at purchase, but they just are too busy to do it immediately. Nice to know it’s retroactive to date of purchase.
