what statistics do local governments use for assessing property taxes?

Answer 1

I can only talk about how this is done in BC Canada, but I think the method is likely similar everywhere.

in BC the provincial assessment authority is given the mandate to appraise the value of all property in the province, as at a certain date in the year (july 31 of each year)

The methods they use are the common appraisal methods of comparitive, cost and or revenue based appraissals. In addition they have an amazing database of information on all the properties
They have access to all building departments, so they know that property owner take out a building permit, they also are plugged in with the land titles office and record all sale prices and note if sale are arms lenght or not.

They use a 300 some point checklist in order to establish their comparable value lists.

So when they start their evaluations they are completely up to date with all activity in any market and will use the most upto date data, as they also have access to all mls systems in the province.

In most cases where nothing has happened with a property they will use a multiplier to adust the assessed value of a property either up or down given the results of their findings in each market place.

If something has happened with a property (sold, improved, destroyed, refinanced etc) they will take a closer look at the property and determine its value.

So by the end of September they will have all of this data processed for the province and will provide this information to the municipalities, for them to be able to use the information to work on their budgets.

By january of the next year each property owner will receive their property value assessment and have an opportunity to appeal the assesed value (which is the only way to get the taxes lowered)

Your property taxes are based on the financial needs of the municipality, school boards, police service, hospital and or local improvment needs. devided byt the number of properties at various rates dependent on the type of property. (higher rates for commercial properties versus single family homes, lower for farms, versus golf courses, to give you some examples).

In canada, municipalities have to work on the bases of a budget that can not run a devicit, so they will include everything as well as a reserve.

So when everything is said and done, it becomes a simple calculation where they have there budgeted total expenses, they know the various tax rates for all the properties in their juristiction, and the computer does the rest.

I am fairly certain this applies to most areas in north America, with may be some local fine tuning, but rest asured, taxing people is something any government know how to do, and by now they have created a bullet proof system, of something that was supposed to be temporary, sure

I hope this answered your questions