"Swingman" wrote in news:q8GdnYk_EaYVtejUnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
Karl, with all due respect, the appraised value for tax purposes is a nonsensical amount. The exact amount doesn't matter at all, provided that all properties in what you call the tax appraisal district are evaluated in the same manner.
The district needs to add up all the appraised values, and also add up all the moneys they will (expect to) spend that have to be raised from the real estate taxes, and then divide one into the other. That gives the tax rate.
If everyone's home gets appraised at market value you will get a certain tax rate. If each property gets appraised for 1/10 its real market value, the tax rate will have to be 10 times higher to raise the same amount of money. It's that simple.
This is another one of those things that gets everyone's hackles up for no reason whatsoever. The only key is that everyone's property needs to be appraised in the same manner and to the same standards. The easiest way is to make that evaluation have some relationship to "real" market value.