Prince William County tax assessments are here.  Residents can check their tax assessments  out via LandRover.   It seems that not all is equal in Prince William County.  Some of my friends’ home values dropped around 5%.  Mine went up 15%.  Oh Good!  I get to pay higher taxes.  I suppose it is all supply and demand.  

PWC is going through a little mini boom.  Is this a good thing?  Not necessarily.  Selling low cost housing at firesale prices is not good for our reputation, or the rest of our home values.  It is great for families just getting started.  It isn’t so good if investors buy up our neighborhoods.  All neighborhoods fare better if at least a majority of the homes are occupied by the owner.

If house values are going up, this is a good thing for the county coffers. Perhaps we won’t have to cut our fire and rescue down to bare bones.  Perhaps we can fill some cop positions.  Maybe our libraries won’t have to be closed on the weekends.  All of the things mentioned hurt new business.  Companies don’t want to move their people to areas where the quality of living is poor.  Inadequate fire and rescue and police force is always bad for business and residents.  Not having accessible libraries and services lowers quality of living standards. 

Nowadays ‘fiscal conservative’ seems to be the big buzzword–the voter red badge of courage.  Quality of life is going to be my buzz word.  If my house catches fire, a family member falls shoveling snow, or I get robbed, I want the safety folks there in a flash.  If that is not being fiscally conservative, well….tough. 

Perhaps we need to use the fiscally conservative expression a little judiciously when it comes to quality of life services.

30 Thoughts to “PWC Assessments are Here”

  1. Lafayette

    Our assessment went down again this year. Looks like I’ll be paying less taxes again this year. I can’t say I’m particulary pleased about this. I want our first responders to be fully funded and not operating with the bare minimum.

    Remember many of the banks are still holding properties and causing “bidding wars”. I’ve seen an improvement in the sale prices, but there’s still quite a ways to go yet. I am glad all the houses on my block are occupied now. This was not the case two years ago. At that time my block 47% vacant-all bank owned.

  2. Captain Idiot-Face

    Took another nice dive again, not as big as the year before, but not too bad!

  3. Why am I the only person who gets to pay more. Maybe I misread the damn thing. Lafayette…help. Where did I go wrong?

    Captain, I am glad I am not having to rescue you now. You should be fine now. It seems that the moderation screeners are all new and fresh and pulled something out on you. Either that or you were a bad evil person in a former life.

  4. anona

    Ours went up as well so we will be paying more. I wanted to go out to a movie tonight but now I think I should stay home, eat Ramen noodles and save my money. I wouldn’t have known the assessments were out except for reading this blog. Should I blame you or the county assessor for spoiling my weekend? I could have had a weekend of blissful ignorance.

    The irony of assessments: I look at the other homes on the street and think why is their home assessed at more than mine when mine has a better lot, etc? Then I remember that means I also will pay less than they will. So am I happy that my home has less value or grateful?

  5. anona, Gainesville Resident told me so we can blame him. 🙄

  6. Al

    Down again… not that much to make much of a difference.

  7. Juturna

    Well, ours went up and I think it’s fine. My house is worth more. I see that as a good thing. It’s not sky high as it was in 06 but I’m glad to see the increase.

  8. Mine is still half as much as in 06. I don’t see that as bad. I don’t see the increase as bad really. Good for the county and good for the neighborhood.

  9. Gainesville Resident

    My new house in Gainesville dropped 4.77%. I’m still waiting to see when the Manassas City assessments come out what happened to my townhouse (which is under contract – if all goes well closing is on 3/25 and then bye bye Point of Woods!).

  10. Gainesville Resident

    I only have this one year of data on my new house – but houses in my new neighborhood built before 2008 took a much larger plunge from January 2008 to January 2009 from what I can see. So, the 4.77% drop my new house took, isn’t as bad as what it would have taken the year before. Used houses in my neighborhood however were selling for GREATER than last year’s assessment, so I’m puzzled that the assessments went DOWN in my neighborhood. I looked at some that I knew sold in 2009 for prices GREATER than the assessed value on January 1, 2009. Their assessments still went DOWN. What gives? It makes no sense to me, and the county is shooting themselves in the foot!

    I’m very curious what will happen to my townhouse assessment in the City of Manassas. From 2008 to 2009, its assessment dropped by 60% (I’m not joking). Now, I just got it under contract for 15% above its January 1, 2009 assessment. So, am curious what the new assessment is, if is close to what I just put it under contract for. I can’t believe its assessment would drop or even stay the same, but who knows?

  11. Gainesville Resident

    Last year, my townhouse assessed at ONE THIRD the value it had in 2006! It would have to up by 50% in its assessment to be only ONE HALF of what it was in 2006! That’s how far prices have dropped in Point of Woods in assessments! All the townhouses on my street are assessed practically the same – the assessments vary at most by $2K one way or the other.

  12. Gainesville Resident

    Like everyone else, I’d rather see my assessments go up. I was kind of surprised my new house went down (as did every other house in this neighborhood – as I spent some time going up and down the streets of the neighborhood in the PWC assessment database – since it shows the assessment history very nicely). No one’s house here increased.

    One last observation – for the first the land value stayed exactly the same for everyone here, but their house value still decreased. It does look like most houses here averaged a 5% decrease – some a bit higher, some a bit lower, but the range was maybe 4-6% with some “outliers”.

  13. Gainesville Resident

    My new house in Gainesville dropped 4.77%. I’m still waiting to see when the Manassas City assessments come out what happened to my townhouse (which is under contract – if all goes well closing is on 3/25 and then bye bye Point of Woods!).

    Moon-howler :
    anona, Gainesville Resident told me so we can blame him.

    Yes, I’ll take credit for giving MH the heads up on this – I happened to see it on another forum (www.city-data.com) – that PWC assessments were out! Otherwise, I would have been in the dark until I found out another way. Someone broke the news over there – I don’t know how they found out! Don’t shoot the messenger for being the bearer of the bad news (just joking)!

  14. We need Lafayette to come back and tell us how this works. I have a hard time getting this right.

    It is March. I am not paying enough tax for the calendar year 2010. In August my mortgage holder ‘reviews’ my account. Do I just continue paying as normal until I get told to pony up more? How does paying an increase for only 3 months give me enough for escrow?

  15. Gainesville Resident

    Oh, escrow accounts are a MESS. My new house – they completely underestimated the amount of the tax. I was something like $600 behind. So now when they re-analyzed my escrow – my payments jumped a ridiculous amount! Not only am I having to make up that extra $600 ($50 a month), but they raised the estimate for the property tax and tacked on another $80/month for that! So, my mortgage payment went up $130/month! I knew it was coming, as when I got the loan I thought the amount for property tax was ridiculously low! I said nothing though, because I figured why pay them when I’d have the money in the bank set aside for when they re-analyze my escrow the next year !

    Still, I hate escrow accounts. My mortgage company on the new house – didn’t pay the homeowner’s insurance in time – and State Farm contacted me and said it was going to lapse, so I paid the full amount. Then, a month later when I FINALLY got Bank of America (not my original lender – but that lender sold the mortgage to BAC) to pay the homeowner’s insurance (one month late) – State Farm refunded me the money I paid to them. What a mess!

    Don’t even get me started on escrow accounts…. It is always fun to work through the crazy math they do each year when they analyze it. I can figure it out – but they do a bunch of odd things in how they calculate it, as to what the current balance is, how many months to all the bills are due (homeowners insurance, property tax) – and then figure out what the deficit is, etc. You have to like math to work through it and reverse engineer their crazy logic, which doesn’t always quite make sense (they’ll estimate something is due a month earlier than it really is, or a month later – and that throws all the calculations off). I always look forward to the annual escrow analysis – as it always seems to be that I’m short which means my monthly payment will increase!

    I wish I could can the escrow account and pay property taxes and insurance myself. My townhouse was paid off a couple of years ago so I’ve liked not having an escrow account on it. This house, well, I’ll be paying into the escrow account for a long long time to come….

  16. Gainesville Resident

    Moon-howler :
    We need Lafayette to come back and tell us how this works. I have a hard time getting this right.
    It is March. I am not paying enough tax for the calendar year 2010. In August my mortgage holder ‘reviews’ my account. Do I just continue paying as normal until I get told to pony up more? How does paying an increase for only 3 months give me enough for escrow?

    Actually, the short answer is: yes just keeping paying what you are paying. When they re-analyze your escrow, they’ll raise your payments to make up for the shortfall. The way I figure it is, you get to keep the money longer, and no one is charging you interest on it! So, consider it a free loan from your mortgage company. HOWEVER, if you really wanted to, you could send them in a payment for the difference, and mark it ‘escrow payment’. That would then mean your mortgage payment wouldn’t increase the next time escrow is re-analyzed.

    Personally, I keep the money and know that my payments will go up the next time they re-analyze the escrow (once a year usually). As I said, I figure it’s a free loan for $300 or $600 or whatever the shortfall is! Then, you pay it back in a year so you only pay 1/12 of that each month!

    One of the few times you can get money at no interest from the bank! Sort of a 12 month zero interest loan, if you will!

  17. Mom

    “Nowadays ‘fiscal conservative’ seems to be the big buzzword–the voter red badge of courage. Quality of life is going to be my buzz word. If my house catches fire, a family member falls shoveling snow, or I get robbed, I want the safety folks there in a flash. If that is not being fiscally conservative, well….tough.”

    M-H, the definition of “fiscal conservative” is a more complicated than you make it out to be. IMHO the first threshold is a determination of niceties v. necessities. Public safety services by definition are necessities, otherwise what purpose would local government serve. That being said, within that public safety line item a determination has to be made as to what is more important, patrol officers or say manning and maintaining a high-speed, high tech marine patrol presence on PWC’s limited shoreline. Similarly, in the schools, what is more important, paying for teachers in the classroom or a what I consider a bloated administrative layer that in many schools is well in excess of the state mandated minimums. Is the development and deployment of new software and systems for the county assessor more important than keeping the libraries open. If there is such a budget crunch and our supervisors are truly concerned, why haven’t they eliminated or reduced their magisterial funds. Further, if recent reports are valid, why do we continue to pay the head of Economic Development a handsome salary and perks, he doesn’t seem to bring us anything more than one new Starbucks each month. I could go on and on but it gives me a headache.

  18. Lafayette

    We’ve watched cuts for three years now at all levels within the county. However, there’s one place as Mom mentioned and we both have numerous times and that’s the almighty Magesterial Discretionary Funds. The supervisors do some good things with that money and they do have to cover office expenses with that money too, but why have they not seen a cut at all. The time is for the Chairman and supervisors to put their money where there mouth is and say we will be reducing our discretionary funds. Novel concept, huh, mom?

    Speaking of Starbucks my teen is wanting to know why the Starbucks on Sudley Manor near Chic Filet at 234 has not opened. I told her the last thing we need is another Starbucks in PWC. I wonder if she has a future in our Economic Development department? 😉

  19. marinm

    I may be in the minority here but I’m not bothered at all with a lower county property assessment. A lower county property assessment shields me from higher taxation (disclosure my prop value went up $800 and I’m trying to determine if I should fight it as too high) without affecting the true value – which is based on comps.

    Since I have no need to sell right now, I want a lower tax bill, and in the unlikely situation I need to sell this year – I’ll just argue that comporable sales in my neighborhood are higher.

    I don’t have a source to cite but I want to say that the county assessments are usually about 15-20% lower than ‘true’ value of a home.

    To the posts about ‘quality of life’ PWC is not anywhere near being a backwater town where you have to put out your own fires or provide your own law on your land. For the many continual years of budget increases across all departments – trims and cuts can easily be made.

    Look at this article to see how far cuts COULD go before we bellyache here in PWC about the loss only a few nice to have services.

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/25/spellman.colorado.springs/?hpt=T2

    There should be no sacred cows in PWC. Anything and everything should be justified and cut.

  20. Red Dawn, I looked at that article and it sure makes sense in some cases. How about if it this idea were linked to certain types of diplomas or attendance?

    Right now seniors can take their senior year at the community college. There are a few hoops to jump through and there are some draw backs, but plenty of kids do this. It counts as a 2-fer. 2 years for the price of one. Nothing like combining your senior year with your freshman year.

  21. Juturna

    I don’t mind paying $12 a month or so more for enhancements like libraries and parks. Regarding economic development, who on earth would move a business here? And convince their employees this is a nice place to live??? We are closing libraries, shutting down parks and I imagine this year the schools will cut arts, gifted programs and athletic programs will be hit.

    I think we become socialistic when we cut arts, culture and the like for $12/month (or so). Of course elminating street lighting would further the socialism headed our way – we’ll all have a self-imposed curfew and the likes of A Clockwork Orange will not be far behind.

    During times like this, centralization of administrative, IT, fleet services is a solid analysis to conduct. Decentralization is muy territorial and hence costly. Before the lights are turned off, combine the staff that pay the bills.

    I like a pleasant looking environmnet and I like good services and I’m willing to pay a certain amount for these services. Not interested in looking like eastern europe of the 50’s and 60’s.

    We need to be STRATEGIC fiscal conservatives with an eye on the future – recovery. If you cut, cut, cut and destroy or don’t maintain your infrastructure, when things rebound and residents want more Public Safety it is more expensive to recover. The county is woefully short of facilities. Police, Fire facilities (not Fire Stations – VFD) are way behind. We will still need them in the future – can you imagine how expensive it will be??!!! At least buy the land now – it’s cheap.

  22. I am sick of the entire expression ‘fiscally conservative.’ I have just heard it too often. Everyone has their own definition so it really means nothing other than what other people think their neighbor can do without.

    I agree with Juturna. I don’t mind paying $12 or $16 dollars more a month so that libraries stay open and street lights stay lit. (<----- that is for Lafayette) I also don't want safety services down to bare bones. I seem to recall a serious fire a couple of years back where promises were made to those people that still haven't been kept. I don't want our police working double shifts. One double shift after the another mars good judgement. I want our schools to to remain Northern Virgina quality, not Mississippi quality. I don't want 40 kids per class. I want us to be able to hire the best teachers and not have to take rejects from other localities. Finally, we live in Northern VA. I don't want to live in the last outpost. If I wanted to live like that, I know where I would go and I could live much cheaper.

  23. Lafayette

    Juturna, It’s important to remember not ALL subdivision zoned R-4 have street lights. Now everyone does have access to the libraries and parks, but sadly this is not true of streets lights. They don’t even a few in their neighborhoods for the early morning bus stops. Even though I’m sick of looking at snow I sure did enjoy watching fall under the street light outside my front door. 🙂

  24. Juturna

    I did think of you when I spoke of street lighting. 🙂 It’s disgraceful.

  25. Lafayette

    How could you not think of me, Juturna? 🙂
    It’s certainly one of those topics I just can’t help myself, but to chime in. I’ve never understood the lack of streetlighting in some neighborhoods since I was kid. Discraceful, indeed.

  26. Juturna

    My guess is your supervisor doesn’t live in that particular neighborhood.

  27. Lafayette

    Good one, Juturna!!! 🙂

  28. Gainesville Resident

    Come out to my neighborhood. We have few streetlights here – the lighting relies on the ‘post lamp’ on each driveway in front of each house. Now, that’s great once the houses are built! But, when I moved here – my house was the first one on my street, and it was really DARK at night coming up the street to my house all the way at the far end of the street.

    It’s all very pretty, but it still is pretty dark here at night. Then again, the astronomer in me sort of likes it dark in my backyard, so I shouldn’t complain. That is one reason I picked my lot, it is a corner lot and is really DARK in the backyard. A streetlight out front wouldn’t bother me – as it is pretty dark at night here, and that wouldn’t have any impact on my stargazing out back with my telescope.

    As far as taxes, if it’s just $12 a month for the libraries and such, I’m all for it. However, I could see someone in the county claiming no – that will make the taxes go up $100/month. Forget that. $12/month is noise level and I’d be glad to pay that.

  29. Make sure that when you look at the assessments, you notice if the rate has dropped the appropriate amount with the lower assessment. There is a formula based on VA law, I just don’t know it. When I worked for a substitute trustee law firm, I reviewed a lot of tax data on foreclosures in PWC. Many were paying more after the assessment dropped than they did at “full value.” I found an average that they were paying about $200 more a year on homes that were $60-100,000 less in value.

    The counties are desperate for money. When PWC cracked down on illegal immigrants, it was discovered that many refinanced loans were done to them. The assessment dropped but the loan values did not. Many illegals refinanced without proper id. They took the equity out of the house. And when the value dropped, walked away with thousands…..
    as did many non-illegals. But THEY were easy to find.

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