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Who's paying what: Waukesha again tops county list in property tax bill comparison(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jan. 27--As rising foreclosures and economic uncertainty continue to rock the housing industry, property taxpayers in Waukesha County soon may be wondering if they're paying taxes on a house with an assessed value that no longer jibes with market reality. "Everyone wants to see the market value be higher than the assessed value on their homes, and they're perfectly fine if the market value is 10 percent higher than the assessed value," said Mike Grota, whose company, Grota Appraisals, handles property assessments for many county communities. "But it drives people crazy if the assessed value is 10 percent higher than market value." Actual tax bills, however, are little affected by such a fluctuation in housing values, he said, because all properties in a community would basically be affected the same. In other words, if your house is assessed too high to reflect current market values, your neighbor's house probably is, too. That means the tax levy continues to be divided up among all properties fairly equitably, he said. "The key is to have fair and equitable values in relation to the market because the market keeps changing," Grota said. An analysis of equalized property tax rates assessed in 2007 in every community in Waukesha County showed little change in the ranking of most-taxed and least-taxed communities. The calculations took into account municipal, county, state, K-12 school districts, vocational school districts and any other overlaying taxing jurisdictions, such as lake protection districts. As in the 2006 analysis, the City of Waukesha topped the list with the highest equalized total property tax rate in the county. Butler in the Menomonee Falls School District, Elm Grove, Big Bend, and the part of Mukwonago that's in the Phantom Lake Management District rounded out the top five on the 2007 list. As expected, towns that typically deliver fewer public services than most villages and cities again are at the bottom of the list with the lowest equalized property tax rates in the county. Norm Cummings, the county's director of administration, said the housing market in Waukesha County is changing, but it's not certain how the market values will play out. "We may see a decline in actual values, or we may not," he said. "The impact may be over a couple of years." Cummings said there always is a lag between market changes and changes in assessed values seen by taxpayers on their tax bills. And there is a lag, he said, between market changes and the equalized property values calculated by the state Department of Revenue that county officials watch closely to track overall growth. "It looks like from the data we're seeing that inflation in housing will be subdued this year," he said. The equalized value data reported by the state for total property in each county is released every year in August based on property sales data from the previous year, said Scott Shields, the Department of Revenue's equalization section chief. "Sales analysis provides us with the economic changes in the market," he said. Grota said there is typically a delay of between two to four years in community-wide property revaluations, but some communities wait far longer than that. He said Lisbon did a revaluation in 2006 after 11 years. "And most people consider that year the peak of the housing market," he said. Different types of properties appreciate in value at different rates, Grota said. For a long time, market values for homes with lake frontage grew at a faster rate than all other types of properties. More recently, subdivision lots led the annual appreciation race along with rural properties of between three and 100 acres, he said. Now, the value of subdivision lots is generally down, while the value of large rural properties with amenities such as woods, wetlands and nice views has held steady. "I don't know if we're seeing a substantial change in our market, except for subdivision lots, which have trended downward based on location," Grota said, noting the steep rise in values for some properties during the recent housing boom years. "This is a market correction. As they say, 'Trees don't grow through the sky.' " To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |