(Photo: Clarence Tabb Jr/The Detroit News)
A recent article posted on the online site for the Detroit News entitled Detroit assessments to fall 5-20 percent highlights a pet peeve of mine. I cringe when I hear people use their annual property tax assessment to infer how much their house is worth. Many don’t realize that municipalities often overinflate property assessments in order to collect more tax revenues. According to this article, Detroit’s assessments were overinflated by 65% on average and may have contributed to rising numbers of foreclosures and delinquent taxes.
Keep this little business tip in mind and it might save you a lot of time and money: Your house is not worth what your tax assessor says its worth–it’s only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. PERIOD. #yourewelcome
To learn more about how your property taxes are assessed, collected, or disputed see the following sources:
Jefferson County Tax Assessor FAQ
How to appeal your Birmingham, AL property taxes
Dr. Hood and his wife Robin live in the Bush Hills neighborhood. In 2014, they were winners of a Community Health Innovation Award of the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science for NHabit, a social entrepreneurial startup aimed at improving the health of their community by addressing the problem of vacant and abandoned property. Specifically, they are applying the principles of strategy and entrepreneurship to create a repeatable and scalable model for monitoring blight, occupancy and other conditions indicative of community health. Their efforts were recently highlighted by WBRC Fox 6 News as well as in the following articles: Building on an Idea and Local and global outreach land UAB on president’s community service honor roll.
