It is an AVERAGE 12 percent increase, not a total. Some are more, some are less, but the arithmetic mean of increases is 12%.

dkush21, if you add up the assessment increases for all of the homes and businesses in Janesville, it ends up totaling a 12% increase. Non-distressed sales of like properties in the vicinity are what's being used for tax assessment adjustments.

Ok, that doesn't make sense either. Why are some getting assessed $200.00 more and others are getting into the 10's of thousands of dollars. How does that equal 6% or 12% for everyone?

Example: 1 nice house on a whole block of houses and that house sells while the others just sit and rot away. They are going to assess the other houses by what that 1 house sold for? Yeah, right! What a scam.

Home sales drop 17 percent through June

latest post on the gazette. Janesville doesn't have a clue yet?

Didn't read his "woodshed" column. I can guess what it said though. I'm quite sure he is OK with the revaluation and his stance and argument that followed is not surprising. He has always been very supportive and trusting of government and I'm sure they appreciate that. Not unlike some regular posters on this site. I'd bet his writing looks so similar to some posters that it is almost eery.

Of course they have to use the laws and system as dictated but, that doesn't make the system right, perfect or unchallengeable. For instance: A well kept 2,500 Sq. ft. home with a three car garage next to a smaller poorly kept home on one side and a $48,000 2-flat asking at non-arms length sale on the other side that hasn't sold in a year and a foreclosed $39,000 home across the street that did sell along with two other long-term sale properties nearby that are still on the market, does not have the same market value as an identical well kept 2,500 Sq. ft. home and garage three city blocks away that sold in 60 days without those nearby regressive defects. But they will use that as an example to establish fair market value for the burdened home since they do not allow non-arms length and foreclosures to reflect on a homes market value. Because of Janesville's unique economic situation resulting from GM, I can see many many homes that are effected by this. Assuring homeowners that the revaluation is "revenue neutral" seems somewhat disingenuous since it only applies to the taxing jurisdiction side of the equation. But for many homeowner's pocketbooks with an increased assessed value considerably above average under the local economic conditions I've described - the revaluation will not be revenue neutral. Therein is the problem that no matter what the law or how fair assessors try to operate is a major sore spot for many homeowners. This could be a sh*t storm.

Assessed value in pretty much all states is a process dictated by law, and in pretty much all states it DOES NOT include distressed and non-arm's-length sales -- because these are not representative. The city assessor doesn't really have a way to tell the contractor to make its assessments based on market value instead of assessed (think invested) value. They have to use the system dictated by state law, and state law, as noted, is fairly uniform on this point.

Angus did a fair job on the taxing side of the assessment process, most of which I have little argument with. But he did nothing to address why a homeowner surrounded by foreclosures, short sales and some dilapidation should feel good about a considerable rise in their home value above the average when no additions or major improvements have been done.

Wow, Angus took the reassessment conspiracy theorists to the wood shed in his Sunday Editorial. Any rebuttals from the ignorant with keyboards crowd?

Skippy, I am all for supporting our schools system, and I am generally happy to pay taxes. My problem is that (A) my property is mis-valued. So, while I have no problem paying my share, an overassessed home creates a host of long term problems. (B) I'm sure many of us are concerned about choices the school board has amde. I don't trust that my increased tax payment will save teacher's salaries or keep my neighborhood school open. So, potentially, I will pay more (on less income thanks to state government changes) to take my child a farther distance away to a more crowded school. If one plus one, equalled two, people would probably be less likely to complain.

Everyone needs to watch what the city did. They assessed our property for what we did several years ago, then the same again this time.

Redder, I think you need to remove your tinfoil hat before blaming it on Democrats. The Wisconsin Assembly, Senate and Governship are all solid Repubs and with a governor who claims he's given communities the tools not to raise taxes. So look there first. I'd love to blame them but I can't in this case. We'll have to see where the levy is headed. There are several foreclosures and dilapidated houses on the same two block stretch of my house in the heart of the city. The house across the street from mine has missing shingles and other exterior problems and sold in a foreclosure for 39,000. It's a beautiful view from my front window. Yet, my assessment will be going up 11.5%. This against the average hike of 6% for residential. Where did the values go down to create that average? At the city dump? Probably not. My guess is the most expensive housing in the city went down. So those in the poorer areas with the least will be paying a greater share of the burden. On second thought, that does sound very Republican.

Just because you have houses in foreclosure in your area does not mean that the value has decreased from 2002. The only thing that matters is what comparable homes are selling for in the last 180 days. If you want to win at an open book session (I have done so in the past) you have to be armed with good information. Talk to a broker and find out what comparable homes in the are have actually sold for recently. Compare location, square footage, number of beds and baths, and size of garage. Also- look for errors in the assessment - like things in the list above. Griping about the economy or local foreclosures will get you nowhere with a board of review.

Rawhide i wish I had your change mine was
$18,600

keep voteing for those democrats people...yeah no tax hike my ache-in you know what...oh and hows that changey thing workin for you...at least now we will get a new city counsil that might actually do something

yeah my letter came yesterday..dirty bastards...try selling it for that...8 houses in my subdivision alone in foreclosure and for sale bet they give em away for a lot less than my assesment

NEWGLASSES - Also got my letter yesterday and would agree with your comment and MANY others. This is a tactic to get more money. Meanwhile 2 homes in our neighborhood sold for 35 - 40 per cent less than what the previous owners paid.

What do you know! My home assessment went up $400. Less then 1/2 of a %. I'll be enjoying a savings of about $250 on my 2011 property taxes! Good job Janesville!

Just got my letter... My home won't sell for the assessed value... let the fight begin. The burden of proof falls on us as homeowners. No letter to a representative or attendance at a meeting will win an appeal. The downward spiral continues.

Instead of using a gun they use a clipboard and a smile.

Soup, Don't be fooled for one second that your taxes will 1) stay the same 2) go down. This is nothing other than a tactic to drum up revenue. Nothing less.

Why don't they just use a gun?

I hope you are right about the over or under 12%. Going down would be good!
IT has gone up $1500(property tax I mean) in the last 5 years. YIKES!
The adjustment was 6%.
So when does this start? With the 2011 or 2012 tax bill?

"The mill rate is determined by each communities budget and therefore affects how many dollars per thousand dollars of assessed value you pay in taxes. Lower property values do not equate to lower taxes, the city just raises the mill rate to accomodate their budget needs."

This from someone else's post, I had to post it here. Well Janesville, quit spending money we don't have. And quit allowing tax-cuts to the rich and maybe you would be able to live within a budget.

I was playing around with the illustrative tax calculator and if your property value went up by more then 11.5%, your taxes will increase vs 2010. If your property value went up less then 11.5%, then your taxes will decrease vs 2010.

Too bad the new assessment e-portal is getting pounded. I would have liked to see what the reassessments are for the homes on my block.

Says here previous estimate was $229,200 & new est is $257,700. Thank you for explanation Rocky. When you see something like this your heart comes out of your chest! I mean to do something like now is a little scary. Can only imagine how folks feel who do the books for cities.

I emailed my district representative so I did my part.

Soup - the community in which I live re-assessed about 5 years ago. My assessment went up about 15%. My taxes went DOWN about $600. Why? Because the mill rate drops when total assessed value increases. Since I went up 15%, but the average increase was over 20%, I wound up OK on the tax end of things. Your increase of $28k may be above or under the average 12% depending on the previous value of your home. If it is above 12%, then you'll probably see an increase. If it is below 12%, you should see a decrease. Your home value is probably dropping - it just hasn't dropped below where it was in 2002.

Contact your state reps now and complain. State does have power to shut this down by modifying law.

I just got my assessment letter in mail. Get this they're claiming the assessed value of my home went up $28,500. I figure that is about an $800 increase a year in property taxes. Only homes which sold on our street in past three years were two foreclosures. I read on cnn money if you have two or more foreclosures on your street in past five years your value should be going down.

Maybe if we all stuck together and fight the increase by loading the city with appointments, they will know that we are not happy with this:
Residents can attend open book, which begins Thursday, July 21. To make an appointment, call (608) 755-3045. Residents who still are not satisfied can take their cases to the board of review.

Beloit is sounding better and better.

I just looked and 37.5 percent of my property taxes go to the school system. Another 37 percent goes to the state. There are many people writing in to school articles on this site who would gladly pay more in property taxes for the teachers. Sounds like the majority in here now don't like that. I also looked, and the only increase is for the actual lot assesment. There were not any increase in improvements. Keep in mind, they do asses 2 values together. Land is actually going up still.

If you want to see what the new assessments are go on the city web site and look.It's amazing ?? www.ci.janesville.wi.us

My real estate agent disagrees. Whom should I believe? My tax assessor or my real estate agent?

The upcoming increase in property tax assessments are the biggest joke yet. Try selling your house for what they assess as market value. It will never happent. There have been scores of foreclosures and short sales in the Rock County housing market for the last 3 years, and it doesn't appear as that will change. Anyone who has attempted to sell a home since this recession started knows what this is- our tax base is eroding and this is how the government protects it's constituents- more taxes. I would be all for a tax payer revolt. As a business owner and home owner here in Janesville I am finding that local, state and federal government won't be happy until they tax me out of existence.

MadeinUSA: Exactly! You are spot on.

Little off topic here but when I'm driving down interstate past few months I've noticed the middle school's parking lot lights are on all day long. I thought the Janesville School District was hard up for money?

OK lets break this down -- property values up 12%. The mill rate will probably adjust...

The reality is this is a way to collect more tax revenue, without raising the taxes. It all happens as a part of property values and mill rate. Then the schools will come along and claim only a 7.5% tax increase, while in reality, it will be significantly more in most cases. At this point, people will be unable to plan their already stretched finances and people trying to sell or buy wont really know if what they are getting is representative of the true value of the property. If you reset or set the new values today, any sell or buy decisions will likely be based upon an inflated adjustment and therefore, as values continue to fall, it will be more difficult to sell and will hurt Janesville in both the short and long run and will further stress the tax revenues into the future. Is there exact math for that-- no.

Thanks for info Rocky with my post I was honestly trying to pass along an interesting link but I'm sure most already saw it. Btw the Gazette article did a sufficient job of explaining. Your post feels a little degrading because it implies some on here lack basic reading and math. I agree with you economy is lousy either way you dice it but I kind of figured that when I saw unemployment figures by DWD at http://dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/newsrelease...

Also I'd like to point out to some of you constantly revealing ones flaws usually doesn't inspire them to work harder or further educate it just hurts their feelings. I think that is counterproductive & I see no logic in that. Some of us were not born with a lot of money and make the best of what we have. Higher education is very expensive but we still try to get there.

To the gentleman from South Carolina I'm sorry you feel that way about Janesville but what folks write on here doesn't necessarily represent the entire Janesville population. Some out there are kind and decent and I happen to like Janesville. I realize its not San Diego or the Carolina's but I think its not bad for its size. Times may not appear so great right now but I have faith it will get better. Best of luck to you all.

My back lot line is border between Janesville & Harmony township. Worse case scenario this gets out of control I'll pay to have home physically relocated & let the Janesville lot sit there to rot. Would only have to move it about 40 feet. :) Do like the banks did out west with foreclosed properties. Bulldoze it down & sell lot way it is to avoid tax hell.

Basics like reading and simple math are needed to understand this article. The information states that values have increased 12% since 2002. (Had this re-evaluation been done in 2007, you would have most likely seen an increase of around 40%. Then from 2007-2011 a decrease of 20% - leaving a net 12% increase...and don't tell me 40-20 = 20. Percents don't work that way.) A 12% increase over 10 years is as pathetic as this economy.

JV93 - You are correct and I believe you - how about if we change your one sentence to --> Hook Line and STINKER.

robot lord, if you are basing your buying a home on what you read on a internet message board then yes I believe edgerton will suit you well.

As an actual home owner in Janesville, I only see this as a positive. The city of Janesville is preserving my future property value. We have a lot of foreclosures and short sales not represented in the current market (I guesstimate 200+ added in the next eight months). We want and need our property values as high as legally possible when this happens, the bigger the bargain, the quicker the sale.

spark...... your ears must have been plugged up when walker said he wouldn't increase taxes.
Like I said he is just passing the book.
So don't get so self righteous on the crumble of the housing market. - as though I said that.
I am talking about Walker passing the responsibility off to the localities to increase property tax, looking like the good guy.
You can play your usual word games forever!!!!!!!

Mark my words. They will jack all the assessments 12 percent and leave the mill rate as is. They will then claim they have held the line on taxes and will pose for holy pictures. The Gazette will buy it hook, line, and sinker. Watch.

Property value increases will be inversely proportionate to the distance to the nearest counsel member.

Another thing Janesville, if I do a short-sale, will I get what you claim my home is worth?? Or are you doing this because of all the foreclosures and short-sales that are going on right now?

All I can say is that if my husband does not get a job soon, I will be foreclosing on my house because I know that I will not get what the City of Janesville says mye house is worth> Stupid move Janesville. You are going to alienate more people who can, move away. Once this city becomes a ghost town, who are you going to get the money from??

Good luck everyone if you're going to try fighting the increase in your property value. I know you will need it.

soup2k10: Great read. Thank you for the post. Unfortunately, our city representatives could care less. If they tell you your house is worth $500,000 then your house is worth $500,000. They will find a way to make you pay more.

As a person that had the opportunity to move to Janesville, after reading a lot of these posts, I am happy that I am buying a house in the Edgerton area instead, closer to work in Madison. I was curious what the local situation was based on house prices, so started reading what was online for this paper. I think now that if I HAD to live in Janesville, I'd rather move back to South Carolina. Janesville does not sound like a good city to live in based on what I see here. I'm glad that I didn't take the bait offered by the realtors. Thank you.

Everybody needs to keep in mind that the mill rate (along with the budget) is what determines the tax, not the property value itself. If the values across the board go up 12%, but the budget year over year stays the same, then the mill rate will actually go down 9%. The result is that your tax bill, like the budget, will remain the same. If your property has gone up more than 12%, perhaps you could complain, but the high end of the housing market has held its own nationally and should locally as well. If your property goes up less than 12%, you may actually end up paying less tax next year.
.
Having a high assessment does not affect your home's market value.

Interesting because report on yahoo.com & ap expects 20% drop. City of Janesville I wouldn't be so quick to act on this! Look at this:
http://www.yahoo.com/_ylt=AncKPEC3vk2F1m...

Im sure Janesville will have some way to charge carbon tax on how much sunlight is captured on our property. I just took 2 trees down so im screwed.

My new home's first assessment was in 2002. It was "undervalued" according to some real estate people. Today, real estate people tell me I can't expect to get out of it what I paid into it. I, like many other homeowners in Janesville, am between a rock and a hard place. JANESVILLE IS THE HARD PLACE! Am I in tax HELL or community HEAVEN? It's hard to believe anyone, so I think I know where I reside. Good luck to others who find their property appraised at one-third more of the real value by fair market standards. It's strange to think that the idea of Bankruptcy is looking like a reasonable alternative! Who pays into city coffers when everyone is bankrupt? What is the modern homeowner's business plan? Can we apply for a TIF exception to get relief from school taxes, like businesses in the 34 TIF districts that the city has established over the years? I think not, we will be left holding the bag, only city officials will know what's in it!

What is censorship? HAHA! Oh yea... its the entire world we live in. Starts as kids, reinforced in schools....etc.

To those mystified about what happened to my Tuesday blog previewing an editorial planned to run Wednesday (today) on the local housing market, we decided to make some changes and now plan to run that editorial Thursday. I'll be posting a related blog later today. The switch had nothing to do with this story (or the timing of the story) on assessments.
Greg Peck

Still waiting to hear where Peck's blog went Gazette. Any explanation or did you just censor it?

Mouse - I see. So the governments plan to bailout homeowners which failed and was implemented on a National level by our President, is the WI Governor and local governments fault? Considering this problem started over four years ago, that is really not the case and you know it. I understand some people disagreeing with Walker and his policies. But blaming him for everything that occurred prior to on a larger level is just silly. Every state has a housing market crisis that stemmed on a National level.

Spark... it's called passing the book, and you know it!

Mouse - Could you please explain how this is Walkers fault? The National housing market started to crumble in 2006 and was the result of multiple National issues.

Thank you Scott Walker....... your great!!!!!!! You don't put things up, you just let your ........ run down hill.

"Let's say the city listens to all the whiners that state their assessment is too high and decided to drop everybodys assessment by 20%. Your taxes will not go down because the city will simply raise the mil rate by 20% to maintain its level of taxation."

I hope your not involved in anything that has to do with taxes.

This logic should be criminal, because with this logic, an individual's property taxes will never decrease.

Why is EVERYBODY in the city (on average), according to COJ, seeing a 12 percent increase in value when the market does not reflect this? Your tax bill is really determined by 2 parts, the assessment and then the mil rate. People that claim the assessment is "nothing to see here" need to think twice. If this were the case the city could easily crank all the assessments up 12% leave the mil rate unchanged and claim they did not raise taxes! "We just did what the state told us to do." Common, do you really believe that they are not trying a back door to increase revenue? Are people really that gullible?

An appraisel is a method to determine what fair market value is (the value of your house on the open market). That is why an appraiser will compare your house to similar houses that have recently sold. The city assessment should be close to the fair market value. However, taxes are based off both the city assesment AND the mil rate. Let's say the city listens to all the whiners that state their assessment is too high and decided to drop everybodys assessment by 20%. Your taxes will not go down because the city will simply raise the mil rate by 20% to maintain its level of taxation. The ONLY thing that people need to be concerned with is that the city assessment is done the same for EVERBODY in the city. In other words, if your house is the same square footage, with the same features, built in the same year with similar construction and built on the same size lot as your neighbor then both your house and your neighbors should be assessed at the same value and therefore pay the same in property tax. Previous assessments were strife with problems where virtually identical houses had assessments that were sometimes different by $30k or $40k.

The story says, "Taxes are paid based on property value, and the state requires the value to be within 10 percent of fair market value to assure equity." So, while appraisal and assessment are not the same thing, the results should at least be in a 10 percent range of each other. True?

autoworker - Banks do not "assess", they have a licensed appraiser do an "appraisal".
Those are two very different financial procedures. Look up the definition if you want.

Banks want to know the value to them if you walk away from the home and they are stuck with it...that's why they want you to have 20% equity in the loan amount, so they can sell it at 80% if you bail out.
Cities want to tax the home at a value that reflects other similar homes in the area, based on square footage, extras, average neighborhood values, etc. They don't care if you walk away, they get the tax money from someone.
I understand that this is difficult to explain and understand, but there is a difference.

When we applied for our equity loan our bank had our home assessed and the property value was decreased. I notice many empty homes in Janesville. I often see those foreclosure auction signs around. I am somewhat suspicious of this increased property business. Where are the buyers who are paying these reported higher prices and what homes are they buying?

"Main Entry: fair market value
Function: noun
: a price at which buyers and sellers both having reasonable knowledge of the property and being under no compulsion are willing to do business"
Source: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc. (per www.dictionary.com)

So this may be a first in history. If all of the posters on here from both left, right, and middle agree this recent development with the assessors office is a travesty then what do the rest of the Janesville residents think? If our usually contentious yet entertaining interactions have taken a sudden tone of agreement then maybe its a sign that we should stand up and say we simply will not allow the results of the revaluation to stand.

fly_on_the_wall. I'll assume you and most of the commenters here are living in a world where short sales and nearby foreclosures effect the value of your home. Real estate tax assessors don't have to live in our world according to state law.

Thick or not, I have the same question. "Fair Market Value" assumes there is a "Market" - doesn't it?

baegucb, We agree on something! Cool.:)

MadeinUSA, thanks for the great link. All should watch it to see the perspective these people have. This is your money and your government.

jv93: I may or may not agree with you about stuff. But yep, stuff is disappearing on this site. I clicked on your nick and did a view all on your comments. Scrolling down I found a comment to a story: "Is there hope for housing market?" which gives a 404 page not found error. And I remember seeing the story. It's also missing from http://gazettextra.com/weblogs/opinion-m...
The combination of *both* stories suggests the stories are being censored. One story missing, maybe an accident. A second story not easily found, Gazette staff are hiding them imho.

Also, which 1500 to 2500 properties did you evaluate to get this figure from?

This was different. Peck had a blog and posed a question about when the local housing market will recover and discussed various issues. I don't always agree with him but I enjoy his work. The blog was up for approximately one hour opposite the story about home values going up 12 percent. I found the juxtaposition of these two headlines wildly entertaining. Apparently the Gazette did not find this very humorous because Peck's blog soon disappeared. Could it be that the Gazette understands that city officials look bad saying values are up while right next to that story is a blog by their own op/ed writer talking about how bad the local housing market remains? Can the Gazette explain this?

EVERYONE, make sure you go and fight the assessment.

The one and only reason your property values are up 12% is so we pay more in property taxes. Everyone knows damn well that no one can sell there house at what they try to assess it at. And you all thought that our taxes would not go up. HA!

Here's the missing link: http://gazettextra.com/weblogs/latest-ne...

I have no idea why it's so hard to find now.

hrmm...I too was looking for the previous story.

So where did Greg Peck's blog about the local housing market go? It mysteriously disappeared as well. Will it reappear shortly as well or was it given the ax? I find it suspicious that his blog lamenting the local housing market disappears on a day when you put out a story about what our assessors office is doing to make the local housing market even worse.

ITS BACK!