My brother Ron and I have the distinctive honor of managing the Realty Executives office in North Central Phoenix (AKA Realty Executives Center Pointe.) Among our duties is putting together educational content for our twice-a-month agent meetings. We really like that part of the job.
This past week we had Keith Russell, the Maricopa County Tax Assessor, come to our office. He was a lot of fun and very educational. He delved into the history of property tax collection and gave us a better understanding of the convoluted system our legislature adopted in the 80's.
We have $10.00 bucks for the first person who can tell us who performed property tax collection in Arizona before statehood? Not the person, but the job title. Just email us with your answer and we'll announce the winner when we get one.
One thing I did not understand is that the amount we pay does not necessarily go down if the value of our homes goes down. Home valuation simply determines how much of the total tax "pie" we will pay. In other words, if the budget increases there will be more taxes due and our individual obligations will also rise. If you click on this link you will go to the Q & A section of the tax assessor's web site and they have more detailed explanations.
Just to make things more confusing, the valuations sent to us each year actually reflect the values from about 2 years prior. Therefore, do not expect to see large changes when you get your next tax bill. You will see lower home values reflected for the next few years. This delayed reporting is something that bothers Mr. Russell. I understand it is an issue he is raising with the legislature in hopes to have some changes made. His job mandates that he carry out the laws that are in place, even when they are stupid.
With that said, we do have the preliminary valuation changes for 2009 listed City by City for your review. Buckeye and Avondale have the greatest reduction in valuations while Gila Bend, Carefree and Paradise Valley have increases. Click on the picture below to see a larger view of the document.
That's it for this week. Hope you have a great weekend. We're going out looking at houses.
Gene Urban
The Urban Team
Realty Executives
www.UrbanTeamAZ.com
By the way, Keith Russell is running for another term. I found him to be respectful, knowledgeable and darn passionate about his job. He'll get my vote.
