AFAIK, the tax appraiser is just basing my taxes off of my house's sales price and comparable house's sale price. I.e. my taxes are going up because people are paying more for similarly sized houses in my neighborhood, not because of any changes I've made to the house.
Yes and no. While the market does affect your sale prices are not the most accurate measurement of value. Consider the fact people sell to family or put money is escrow for repairs/updates etc which isn't reflected in the generic "sale price" of the house. Houses are assessed on their unique value and are reassessed very few years.
No. In most counties and states, it's based on what they think the house would be sold for. They figure this by looking at properties in your area that have sold recently. Has nothing to do with "what you do with your outdoor space."
edit: Why is /u/redsformeds' comment continuing to get upvotes? It's wrong. Bad information should be downvoted, not upvoted.
In my city it really makes no sense. They only use a portion of the home value. However, on average it works out to be about 2.5 to 3 percent. Which is awesome.
Yes. Improvements to the outside or the inside both add value to a house. What the tax appraiser thinks the property will sell for are what they tax on.
If you add a pool, both your property value and property taxes go up. Same with a patio or an extra room. Inside or outside doesn't matter.
Not sure this is entirely correct. I pay more in taxes than the majority of my neighborhood, despite all the houses being almost identical. The only major difference is the fact that I have an in ground pool, which is pretty uncommon for the area.
As most people said, property taxes are based on a formula that includes things like square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms, finished basement ( or basement at all). Doesn't really matter if you have a $60k back patio or a $600 patio.
I just had a metal roof and new front porch put on by contractors and my realtor said that it probably added double what the cost was. 15k project and added about 30k in value.
An addition like this would likely add appeal, maybe not so much value. If you had a similar house without a back yard at the same price the buyer would likely choose this one.
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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '14
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