Carter here with CENTURY 21 Affiliated and today we’re going to be discussing how property taxes are higher on Lake Winnebago property. What is the reasoning behind this & can you do anything about it? In this blog Carter goes over what you need to know regarding property taxes on your waterfront property!
Factors Affecting Property Tax
What you need to know is of course Lake Winnebago property taxes are higher because house prices are higher. When you are comparing a $400,000 Lake Winnebago Home to a House in the City, the Waterfront house will have higher taxes. Why is that? It is because the municipality looks at waterfront property on Lake Winnebago as “more valuable” because they are not making any more of it. From the municipality standpoint, they look at everything as a tax generation model & they can garner more taxes for more valuable property.
Another contributing factor to higher property taxes is what municipality is it in? Is it in a township, is it located in the city, or is it in some sort of village? Those are also things that will have an effect on the current property tax value.
EXAMPLE: Say you own a property on Lake Winnebago in the City of Oshkosh and another individual owns one in the Town of Black Wolf. The Town of Black Wolf has more reasonable property taxes because the township doesn’t need as much tax revenue to operate and function.
In most cases, if you can find a house in the townships or village the property taxes should be quite a bit cheaper.
Property Tax Reduction Method
How do you get your tax assessment value reduced? It is possible by proving to the assessor that the house is not worth what they’re stating it is worth. So how do you do that? I would ask a real estate agent to pull comparable properties for you to justify what value you’re asking it gets reduced to. This will give the assessor “similar” homes that have sold in the past in the same municipality for hopefully a lower assessed value.
NOTE: If an assessor stops by your home to get a new tax value it is to your benefit to let them in, otherwise they will just throw a blanket value over the entire neighborhood.
Or, if you’ve bought a property and it needed some work, chances are it sold for lower than the assessed value. If it did, I would recommend reaching out to the assessor in charge of the municipality, and letting them know that, “I paid $200,000 for this property and it’s tax valued at 340,000, can we make an adjustment according to the current condition?” In some cases, the municipalities only have an opportunity to change assessed values once per year to do this. Do some research, and you will have a fairly good chance at getting your tax value reduced.
Now does this mean that they won’t raise it again next year? No, they could bump it up the next year after you do some improvements, but always make sure to protest the tax value. Most people do not know it is possible to do this – but I would always recommend it!
Can I Be of Assistance?
If you need help or if you’re searching for homes for sale on Lake Winnebago, please reach out. I would love to assist you in the process. Again, you can feel free to fill out the form down below, or give me a call on my cell phone, which is (920) 252-2864. Best of luck house hunting and I’ll talk to you soon.
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