How are property taxes calculated? Why does one house in one neighborhood have such a high property tax and another house in an adjacent neighborhood have such a low one?
Here are a few guidelines to help you understand.
First, the good news—one of the amazing things about living in Oregon is our property taxes don’t go up over time after we buy a home. For example, if you buy a home for $200,000 and over time it adds up in value and you sell it later on for $600,000, a tax assessor can’t just assess that property at $600,000. According to our tax code, a property’s assessed value can only go up approximately 3% every year, even if the property is sold over and over again.
There are other reasons your property tax can go up, though. If you do a permitted remodel, your home’s assessed value can go up. Every once in awhile (maybe 10 or 15 years), a particular area will also get reassessed out of necessity.
In general, though, if you sell your home for quite a bit more than what it was assessed for, that won’t necessarily flag the assessor.
Keep in mind, I’m not a tax assessor, so if want the most accurate answer possible to this question, you should visit your county’s tax assessment office. They can not only answer your questions, but they can also show you how you can protest your property’s assessed value. We’d be happy to pull comparables to help you with this process.
Also, remember that every neighborhood has different property tax rates, so they can be all over the map.
If you’d like more resources on this topic or you have any other real estate questions or needs I can take care of, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be glad to help you.
