Property Value Notice?

Official property assessor reassess property on his turf regularly. If houses comparable to yours have been bought or sold recently at a value higher than what you paid, OA has the right to raise your assessment. You have the right to grieve..call the office and ask what the procedure is. You will have to hire a private assessor who can find comps. to bring in your house value slghtly lower. Then you go to grieve in person w. all your documents. Some people bring lawyers. I did it myself; the town split the difference in the increase. But I live in a very small town; maybe your county does it differently.

And of course, you will have to pay property and school taxes yearly. All assessors have a little "wiggle room," as do you.

You don't say when you purchased your home, but I presume it is recently. Ironically, the very purchase of your home can send taxes in your area up because of the price you payed. Shortly after I purchased my first home years ago, my property taxes tripled. I thought it was a mistake--but it wasn't. And then when we fixed the house up a bit, they zoomed up again, although not at the same rate. I have had people from the county assessor come to my house for a reevaluation. In one case they changed their valuing of the house since my basement was not fully heated. So you can ask them questions and ask for a reevaluation, but, from my personal experience, 2% might not be too bad an increase.

It also depends on where you live It appears your in CA, your property taxes are capped at 2% growth due to prop 13. Also if you refinance withen a year of the initial purchase they will raise the tax to the new appraised value. And renovations to your home may trigger higher taxes.

If property values due drop you can have your home re appraised to get a lower property tax as well.

In Arizona Property taxes are based on the cost to rebuild your home.