Ridgefield Taxes, Ridgefield Tax Assessment,

What Everybody Ought to Know About Ridgefield, Real Estate Taxes.

January 7th, 2008 categories: Buying Your House, Ridgefield, Selling Your House, Talking Real Estate

2007 Ridgefield Tax Assessment

You live in Ridgefield, CT, you own property here, and you just recently got a notice in the mail alerting you to the change in your Ridgefield property tax assessment for 2007.

What the shrek?!! Did you run to the phone to request an ”informal hearing” to protest your new higher tax assessment? If so, you were not alone. Everyone is nervous about what their higher assessment means to their bottom-line tax bill.

ATTENTION: Just because your assessment increased, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your taxes will go up.

I attended one of these hearings with my clients whose assessment went up $100,000 since their assessment in October 2006. Funny, I anticipate that, in their case, it will be re-adjusted.

The last time we had a town wide re-assessment was in 2002, and this year’s new assessments are designed to reflect current market conditions of 2007 (70% of market value). Are you surprised that your assessment has increased since 2002? Don’t be. Even with current down-trend in market conditions, any recent dips in value will not erase the crazy appreciation our values took from 2002-2005. The percentage of increase is what you have to watch out for. In our office at Keller Williams Realty in Ridgefield, our agents have reported increases ranging from 10% to 69%. This is a broad range that either means the 2002 assessments were done poorly, or, the representatives from the company that was hired (Total Valuation) to value our properties in 2007 were smokin’ something (?) while they were driving around peeking in our windows. Rumor has it that if you made an appointment, were home, and let them in to inspect your property there was a likelihood that your increase would be less “jarring”.

How Your Ridgefield Property Taxes are Computed

Taxes on real property are the source of revenue that keeps our local government running. They are not imposed by state, but by our local municipality.

The State of Connecticut specifies the maximum rate on the market value of the property, or a percentage of it, as the legal standard for the local assessors to follow. The Ridgefield Assessors Office, headed by Assessor Al Garzi, determines the value to be taxed. Like death, you can’t escape paying your share of the Annual Town Budget known as the “Grand Levy”

The Grand Levy is the amount of revenue in the Annual Town Budget, which must be raised by the property tax. The balance required is received from fees, state assistance and miscellaneous revenue. The Grand List is a listing of all taxable properties located within the Town of Ridgefield on October 1, of the Grand list year. The property tax rate is expressed in mills or thousandths of a dollar. The tax rate is determined by dividing the Grand Levy by the Grand List. Because the budget will not increase as dramatically as the assessments, the Mil Rate will be adjusted to ensure that taxes do not spike like the price of gas.

Will Your Property Taxes Increase?

In a recent Ridgefield Press article, Al Garzi was quotes as saying, ”Increased assessments from the revaluation will mean a drop in the mill rate.” What this means to you is that your taxes may not go up. When the Mil Rate is adjusted, some will go up, some will go down, and some will stay about the same. Mr. Garzi anticipates that ratio to be about 33:33:33. “It all depends on what your position was from the previous reassessment,” Mr. Garzi said.

Informal hearings were conducted on an appointment basis from Friday, Dec. 7, through Saturday, Dec. 22, at the Ridgefield Parks and Recreation Center to give taxpayers an opportunity to hear how they came to the value conclusions about the properties, and to review the information to make sure the information has is accurate. If you missed this opportunity, don’t fret, you still have the right to challenge your assessment at a later date. It will definitely help to see what the new Mil Rate is set to and how that will affect your tax bill.

There will be more news as the story unfolds, and the effect becomes more clear. You can read it here! Come back for more Real Estate Chocolate !