Home Values, Taxes, and Doing What's Right

[Grace O'Malley]

Rocky River has decided to do something I've long thought Lakewood needed to do:

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1150792341190860.xml&coll=2


The county, IMHO, has always been a bit remiss in revaluing homes. Much of the information they have is inaccurate or out of date. How many of you have square footage below what you know you actually have? Or have a home value far below what you know you'd get if it sold?

Rocky River is aggressively pursuing value updates. When a home is sold, they want the value adjusted. In theory, any time a home is sold the auditor will use that information during the next reassessment. They are done every 3 years; a quickie every 3 and a more thorough every six. But they often seem to ignore the sale price and raise the value of the home only a certain percentage. Recent sale price is THE benchmark for assessing the home's value and should be used.

Although no one likes to have their taxes raised, and you can certainly argue about the actual market value of your home, I think this program is something Lakewood should consider.

There are lakefront homes in Lakewood that are paying taxes on an assessed values FAR below their true value. Same in Clifton Park.

I've seen homes in Clifton Park that pay less tax than a homeowner with a modest home on Cook. All tax inofrmation is available on line. See for yourself, don;t take my word for it. An awful lot of homes are undervalued.

The city should insist that ALL homes in Lakewood are accurately valued. Obviously, some will get their feathers ruffled and claim its not fair that their home is increased in value. No one likes taxes, but it is important to the city that all taxes allowable are being collected.

I hope Mayor Geroge and the school board look into this and consider a similar arrangement.