Do they just measure the outside dimensions of a home to arrive at their numbers? I'm trying to appeal a tax value for my home and I want to make the case as ironclad as possible.

2/9/2009 1:55:37 PM

just don't count the garage, attic, storage building, etc

oh and welcome to the internet. i'd like to introduce you to http://www.google.com

[Edited on February 9, 2009 at 2:01 PM. Reason : ]

2/9/2009 2:00:02 PM

Yes. It's exterior dimensions.

2/9/2009 2:00:39 PM

as long as what they measure is different than the actual you have a case typically i thought

second link after googling what defines heated square footage
http://www.coolhouseplans.com/calculating-square-footage.html

there was a thread on this already i thought as well - probably in the real estate thread - did you even attempt to search or google

2/9/2009 2:01:11 PM

Add up the floor space of each room. Walls are 4.5'' thick generally and don't need to be counted for heated area.
If you measure outside dimensions of a house it would be a gross overestimate.

2/9/2009 2:02:00 PM

^ True, but according to a realtor I worked with measuring the exterior dimensions is the standard.

2/9/2009 2:03:51 PM

But what about the garage?

2/9/2009 2:08:19 PM

The garage definitely doesn't count. Wake County is definitely using outside dimensions. There are 4-5 other homes with what appears to be our exact floor plan (at least what it looks like from the street). You fire up the tax records and you can see the layout is the same but the measurements vary by ~1ft in many instance and it makes the difference 100-150 sq ft between my house and theirs.

2/9/2009 2:11:18 PM

exterior dimensions of the house. no un-heated areas. also, areas that are heated but have "unheated" access do not count...for example, say you have a detached garage with a bonus room over it, but just a covered walkway otherwise exposed the elements to get to it. that bonus room does not count.

2/9/2009 2:14:01 PM

I think Wake County used to measure interior walls and that they switched over at some point, but that's just based on observations. I noticed a lot of the older homes I looked at showed a 100-200 sq. ft. difference between Wake County's records and the listing.

2/9/2009 2:16:13 PM

I wonder how much tax monies they are skimming by doing this. As it stands now, the tax value of my home is greater than 10% higher than it sold for in May 2007. If it were to sale today, that number would be closer to 20%. I called the guy and talked to him before he sent the appeal form and said they don't adjust whether there is inflation or deflation. I think that's all well and good, but I feel pretty certain they used the past few years (maybe past 8, since the last evaluation?) gain in home prices as their model and fixed the new evaluation level at the midpoint. Now, with the bottom of the economy it's a big maybe that my home will see that value they assessed in 8 years. In all likelihood, it won't see that value for more than a decade. And this isn't just my home, this is EVERY home they just reassessed when the market was at a peak.

2/9/2009 2:23:33 PM

Also, any idea what is included in Base Bldg Value? From the difference in that and Card 01 Value, it seems like Base Bldg is just the house and garage, and then the difference up to the total (sans land) must be for the decks, screened in porches, etc.

2/9/2009 7:07:41 PM

Wow, so I've been looking at the tax values of other homes in my 'hood (not just the ones matching my floor plan, and the smaller home owners are getting proper fucked. For homes in teh sub 2000 sq foot range, the tax value is consistently greater (in most cases 7-10% more) than the most recent sale price of the homes I sampled (most sales were in the past year). For homes in the 2000-2150ish range, the homes on average have tax values at or slightly below the most recent sale price, and for the homes that get into the 2300 on up range the tax values are coming in up to 10% LESS than the most recent sale. That's seriously fucked up.

On a Base Bldg Value basis, my home is coming it at $89 sq ft Tax value where 2400 and 2500 sq ft homes are coming in at $70-72. Fucked up shit man.

2/9/2009 8:01:41 PM