Assessment challenge question.

[Jerry A]

Whenever the city increases my property assessment I challenge it. I am trying to find out where they came out with the nbhd way of saying what neighborhood your home is in, they are numbers that tell you what neighborhood you live in. I thought in Buffalo you live on the East Side, West Side, Delaware district and so on. I have tried to look it up on the internet as well as talking to the Buffalo Assessment department and it is not a surprise that no one knows. My property is the same size as over my back fence however mine is assessed at $22,000.00 and the other is $6,000.00, they tell me that is because I am in the 180 nbhd and over the fence it is 160 nbhd. Does anyone know where the nbhs system started?

[nogods]

I don't know the answer to your question.

But if you are trying to prove the value of your property based on assessments of similar property near your property (like the property on the other side of your back fence), and if the City claims that those other properties are not comparables, then the City is going to have to put on some evidence of:

(1) the boundaries of the alleged nbhd's to establish their assertion that your property is in a different nbhd, and


(2) evidence that the different nhbd has an effect on value.

I doubt the City will be able to show either.

Challenge the assessment and then take to a SCAR hearing. A competent SCAR HO is not going to let them slide with that mickey mouse argument unless they can prove it.

[Linda_D]

I agree with nogods.

"Nbhd" zones are like census tracts: they are statisticall divisions that are used by assessors to make sure that they've counted every property, and they are also used when assessment data is analyzed. They do NOT determine the value of any home; the actual values of homes determine each NBHD average. Anybody telling you differently is full of bull manure.

Although the average value of homes in NBHD A might be $20,000 and the average value of homes in NBHD B right next to it might be $40,000, similar homes on/near the boundary between A and B should be assessed about the same. So, yeah, if your lot and your home are like the one across the back fence, then both homes should be assessed about the same.

[Jerry A]

What I was referring to was the value of the land, ie in Buffalo the total value of the property includes the living area and the land value. Over the fence next door the property is the same 33 foot frontage and 130 foot depth = $6,900.00. My land is 29 foot frontage and 133 foot depth = $22,100. The city assessing department can not provide a map for NBHD by numbers.

I have no problem finding property similar to mine and have always won my challenge. I was told by one of the ladies at the office that the NBHD numbers have not been changed for decades.

This is the link.
http://www.city-buffalo.com/files/1_...e_res_nbhd.pdf

[Linda_D]

House or land, it doesn't matter. By state law, assessments are supposed to be made on full market value of the property, which includes both building and land. Most municipalities do assign a value to the land a building sits on, but in many cases, because no vacant lots have been sold in decades, these are arbitrary figures or guesstimates.

What might matter for the land value is the zoning of the two parcels. For example, if one lot fronts on a busy street and is zoned commercial (even if the building on it is a house) and the other lot is on a side street and zoned residential, then the commercial lot is probably worth more because, theoretically, it could be turned into a business. Occasionally, you'll see some ramshackle old building selling for six figures because it's on a desirable commercial lot. However, most residences on busy commercial streets sell for less than similar homes on side streets.

The NBHD is some kind of identifier. It does NOT affect the value of homes. The actual house, street, and the neighborhood affect the value, not whether it's in NBHD 10 or 20. The sales prices of homes in the area determine the assessments not some code that the people in the Assessor's Office can't explain.