more ranting and raving

MSJen has good reason to rant, and I completely agree with her, but now can I vent my spleen? I was born and raised in this area of the Puget Sound and have always thought of it as 'home'. Over 25 years ago, when our son was still at home and we went on vacations, we found a vacant lot on a small private island a 15 minute drive and 45 minute boatride from home. After 10 years of paying for it and saving enough to have a cabin framed and weather tight we spent the next 10 years finishing it payday by payday. With 720 sf on the main floor, 100 sf in the loft, 3 rooms and a 'basement' of sorts we found it to be small but comfortable. The beach is some 400 feet away across the community picnic area.All this for only an investment of perhaps $40,000 and a lot of time and labor.Last month our County Assessor revalued the property at $219,000 ! Not bad for a 3 room cabin with access to a beach only a block away, and for the property taxes, road tax but no roads,school tax but no school, library etc but no public services. Apealing does no good because they say "the legislature made me do it", and if you think the taxes are too much,go to the individual taxing districts and talk to them! Ha. They gotcha.Anyway, we are fortunate to have a getaway and enjoy it as much as we can, while we can. Just hate to see the government taxing it beyond our means. Sorry for such a lengthy diatribe.

One of my neighbors was just "gifted" a house that had been sold for $6,000 to the person that gifted it to them, because some crazy people (who made world wide news for biting a dog) had lived in it, trashed it, used the floors as toilets, etc... etc.... Disgusting - and this house had to have the windows open after being cleaned and was just used by the packrat that bought it for storing things in. The County Assesor had just valued it at $58,900.00 if you can believe that. My neighbor very nicely called and asked them to come please take a re-look at it (since they don't look, they just look at databases). A man came over 2 days later and re-evaluated it at $18,500.00 - MUCH MUCH better. I told her by being very sweet to the man on the phone, she probably scored some points and got the man to feel a little sorry for her, just to get him to come take a look at it. There was a BIG difference in the property value after they came and took an actual physical look.

Unfortunately for you, being on the water like that, and having a place established is going to cause it to be high. I doubt that you would be able to get yours lowered. It happened to alot of people on Long Lake who bought property real cheap when the lake was polluted. Now, after the clean up, these middle-classed workers are sitting on property valued in the 1/2 million dollar ranges that they can't afford the taxes on. It's killing them and forcing them to sell to people who didn't put in the sacrifice to clean up the place, put up a homestead, and make it their own. It is very very sad to see those homes go up for sale from people who just wanted their own piece of paradise.

That's happening around Buckeye Lake near here. One of the museum curators is barely able to stay in their home, originally a summer cottage, because of the land value. She said someone would tear down the little house and build a fancy waterfront home on its site, and the taxes are about eating her alive. She's lived there 60 years, I believe. Isn't that a shame?

It is a real shame indeed GW. You don't own anything in America. :) The government owns it- or taxes you silly til you have to sell.
One way to help out a little is to leave your place messy and make sure the outside of the house looks rundown. It's helped a couple people- but maybe not you? Who knows. I wouldnt wanna live in a trash heap though. :-(

One problem we face is the fact that the County Assessor's Field Inspectors don't always look at the houses, just use sales data in the area, supposedly throw out the highest and lowest and use the median sales.Don't even have to leave the office for that! Funny they don't reduce the values when the prices drop.

Yes - they use databases on a computer to value your house. The only way they can tell the real value, if you dispute it, is to come out and look for themselves, which means they have to drive over, which they really don't want to do but............ it is a part of their job!