What effect will the mortgage meltdown have on my property taxes?

Answer 1

Probably not much overall effect. If property values end up going down, your town/city/county still has to end up with roughly the same amount of revenue that it did before, so what will more than likely end up happening, is that what your property is worth may decrease, but the amount per $1,000 of value that your community will tax you will go up, so you will end up paying roughly in taxes what you did before. If your state has a limit as to how much the amount per $1,000 can legally go up (Massachusetts has Proposition 2 1/2) then your community will have to cut it's budget and reduce services, raise the money from fees and charge more for services, or pass a tax override to raise the rate more (if possible). The community still has the same bills to pay whether your property goes down or not, so they will get the money from you one way or another.

Answer 2

Since property values are not assessed at 100% of a properties value, any decrease in value should have no effect.

Answer 3

Generally that won't have a significant impact on local property taxes.

Answer 4

nothing taxes will always go up