Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Good News and Bad News

I got a "letter" from the county Tax Assessor's Office today. I always hate getting these in the mail. It's never good news. It usually means that you'll end up paying more money soon.

This time there was a chart that has 2 columns. One had the value of my house and land in the 2007 and the other column had the value of my house and land in 2008. It took me a minute to realize that the chart was trying to tell me that the value of my property decreased by 4%. I guess that's not really too bad considering the national housing market right now. But still, I wasn't planning on re-evaluating the economy this afternoon. I was still trying to figure out what to make for dinner when this appeared in front of me.

So after getting a little depressed that I'm out 4% of something I never really had to begin with, I started to think about what it means to me... That must mean that my taxes will be going down! So I was happy for a moment. A very slight moment. I didn't remember seeing any mention of my taxes in the "letter." So I pulled it out again and reread it. Sure enough it didn't mention anything about my tax rate. So I was right the first time, these "letters" are never good news. Basically it said that my house decreased in value but I'll still owe the same or maybe even more taxes this year. Now can someone please pass the rum?!

1 comment:

A Mom Two Boys said...

Gah! It's depressing, isn't it? I'd KILL for a 4% decrease, though. Ours has been MUCH higher than that.

And, sadly, our property taxes continue to rise! :0)