The Bee made a huge mistake by only seeking the County’s perspective for their story. They should have interviewed homeowners whom are currently mired in the appeals process with the county. Better yet, they should have provided actual homeowner CASE STUDIES to test the validity of the county’s statements. Had the Bee done those things, I am pretty sure their article would have had a headline similar to the one I posted, instead of the generic “Property tax appeals on the rise.”

From the Bee’s article: “It’s tough times out there for people, and they’re trying to get any help they can,” said an assistant clerk to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.

Really?  I think YOU, the county, are the ones experiencing “tough times.” I guarantee YOUR deficit is monumentally bigger than ours, the collective deficit of the 9,000 property owners currently waiting on your antiquated appeals process to send them their “hearing date.” Grrrr.

The clerk’s statement above totally validates every suspicion I have had about the county since the day I received a terse REJECTION letter from them in response to my request for reassessment earlier this year; a rejection letter that would set in motion a bureaucratic, time consuming, antiquated “appeals” process mandating my wife and I “appear” in front of their royal “appeals board” to “plead” our case.

According to the Bee: “Sacramento County reduced the assessed value on as many as 30 percent of residential units this year in the wake of the housing slump….Many more homeowners felt they deserved to have their assessed values reduced..As a result, assessors’ offices were inundated with calls after tax bills came out, and numerous property owners have filed formal appeals.”

Deceptive or misinformed? Has to be one of the two. There is no other option, because that statement does not even begin to accurately portray what is really going on. “As many as 30%”? With all due respect, if this writer actually stopped to think about what he was writing, or even had a clue what victims of the county’s property tax shenanigan were going through right now, he would have wrote “a sparse 30%.” How do I know what’s going on? Because I am one of the ones waiting on an appeals “hearing.”

The overall the tone of the article implies homeowners are merely panhandlers playing banjo for change on the street corner. Instead of aiming the accountability gun at the county and asking how they justify only adjusting a SPARSE 30% of the homes in the worst recession since the great depression? What a GREAT question the Bee NEVER asked.

Personally, I don’t care if the date range is only Jan 1 to March 31,  the fact the assessor only reduced 30% of the homes in the area should be a major red flag. Sacramento region home values have been RAVAGED in this downturn and by March of this year many areas like Natomas had already taken a 40% reduction hit (and even more in many cases).

To call this recession a “slump” is another grave understatement and a total disservice to all those who are upside down 50% on their house now. Give me a break. How patronizing can these people be?

The truth is, the county is facing a huge budget deficit, and they are the ones who have fallen on “tough times.” THEY are the ones “trying to get all the help they can get” by what appears to be a wanton disregard to the actual values of Sacramento homes in this economy.

Here’s a case study for you Sac Bee:

The purchased value of my home is $365k

The county sent me a letter this year saying they reassessed my home to $335k.

The aforementioned “reassessment” was so far off I nearly choked from laughing when I read it. So..

Per the county’s web site, I printed out a form to challenge their assessment (this is NOT the appeal yet)

In the form, as requested,  I included two comp properties that had sold between Jan 1 and Mar 31. One for $220k and one for $240k. They were the same exact size of mine and within a block.

In the “Your opinion of home’s value” box I put something like $220k. It’s my opinion right?

Days later, I received a letter in the mail from an assessor assistant dude with about 3 sentences. Something to the effect of “Your home could not have gone down in value that much in x number of months, so therefore *I* am rejecting your request based on your opinion of the home’s value.” It also included a note on how I could appeal.

I sent them another letter saying basically, “I only stated my OPINION, like you requested. Nowhere on the form did it say you were going to use my “opinion” as a scientific measure of the home’s value to compare to some other standard. I BEG you to look at the comps again and use your best judgment. There is NO way this home was worth $340k as of Mar 31 of this year!

They responded with another letter stating effectively, “We don’t make discretionary adjustments. We use the value stated as “your opinion” to approve or reject your request. You can appeal.” Grrr. Thanks a lot for taking some initiative! Not. I would have been happy to compromise and give them the benefit of the doubt. I would have been fine with even a MODEST adjustment like $275k. But $335k!? Are they INSANE? No, they are in the red by so many millions of dollars they may never get out.

Never the less, I went to their web site again. I could not find the appeals form anywhere. I called their office. A woman answered. I asked her where to find the appeals form on their site, she said curtly, “The web address for the form is listed at the bottom of the petition form” we sent back to you. I said “No it is not.” She said, “Sir I KNOW it is, but just for you, I will look it up to make sure.”  Then she was silent and hmmmmed. Then she said, “Oh, they must have taken it off there. That’s weird.” She then gave me the address and I downloaded the form, filled it out (tiny print you can barely read and tiny little boxes no even wide enough to print an address in) and we sent it in.

Now we’re waiting for our “hearing.” A hearing that will require we take time off work, drive to the county offices (thus polluting the environment and helping clog freeway traffic–way to lead the carbon footprint reduction quest by example Sac County!) plead our case in front of the county judges, and PRAY they have mercy on us. Wonder how many hundreds of thousands of dollars in human resources taxpayers will spend for the county to field the 9,000 appeal hearings? Is it any wonder why the county’s deficit is so huge?

That is a small taste of what is REALLY going on with those 9,000 appeals the county is scheduling. My home was worth approximately $240k as of Mar 31 of this year and the county is saying it was worth $340k. THAT is what is really going on. THAT is also why they likely have 9,000 appeal requests in their books right now.

I can’t help but ask: Is the Bee even interested in getting the REAL story? I am beginning to wonder after reading this one. The Bee’s article falls well short of balanced reporting, and I believe a counterpoint article should be posted immediately so Sacramento residents can be informed about what kind of racket the county is really running with respect to reassessed home values in this downturn.

Wish me luck at my “hearing.”