Posted by Dennis Herrick on July 30, 2008 at 08:27:41:
Guess I'm not the only one bitchin'. Ok now we know two things. New Hampshire is not Massachusetts, everyone has to be assessed at the same rate, right? Well it states below that Industrial sites are assessed at 114%, Condos at 105%, Single family homes 106% and Businesses at a comfortable, affordable 95%. How do they get away with that? Guess P.A.C.E and commercial interests have considerable political clout in town or at least with the current batch of selectmen. One mystery remains. Atkinson has very little commercial and industrial property. Other than a golf club or two, it's almost 100% residential. There's very little to offset taxes on the residents. With per-pupil cost above 12K in the Timberlane district, how do they manage without going tits-up? Either the folks over there are rich, they're just barely hanging on or they've found the mythical the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and they're keeping it a town secret. How do they do it? If Plaistow took out it's magic wand and transformed the commercial and industrial areas in town to residential, would taxes on the residents double? Has anyone run any models to find out?
Reassessment should provide tax relief to Plaistow residents
By Meghan Carey
Staff writer
PLAISTOW — Homeowners can expect to see a slight decrease in their property tax bills this year after a reassessment of the town's 3,000 residential properties.
Selectmen authorized assessor Wil Corcoran this week to do a townwide reassessment to better reflect the decline in the housing market. The state requires towns to perform updates every five years, but in the early 2000s, the selectmen decided to do it more regularly so the changes wouldn't be as drastic because of rapidly climbing house values.
Now, just the opposite is happening. This will be the town's fourth assessment in six years, and the selectmen said it will be the first time values have dropped significantly.
Corcoran said he expects the average home value to drop about 10 percent to 12 percent. Residents whose properties will be affected should expect to receive a letter next week, he said.
The housing market is suffering everywhere, and the results can be seen in Plaistow, he said. So far in 2008, there have been 60 percent fewer traditional sales — 48 total — than at this point last year, he said.
In determining what houses are selling for locally, the town must use only traditional sales, not ones that were affected by family transfers or foreclosures. There have been one and a half of those types of sales for each traditional sale this year.
Corcoran found that each of the 48 properties that sold this year were assessed at about 5 percent more than what they sold for. Single-family homes are now assessed at 106 percent, condos are at 105 percent and industrial sites are at 114 percent, Corcoran said.
Only the town's 300 commercial properties have remained at the ideal 95 percent assessment, he said. The goal of the reassessment is to bring all properties down to 95 percent.
As a result of the reassessment, residential property owners will see a decrease in their tax bills. A house that was assessed at $300,000 in 2007 could save an average of $270 on the town portion of their tax bills when they are mailed out in November. The additional burden will be shifted to commercial properties.
"If we didn't change single families, the single-family homes would be picking up more tax burden," selectmen Chairman John Sherman said.
The tax rate will actually increase, Corcoran said. He estimated that residents may pay an additional 90 cents or $1 per $1,000 of valuation, but the values will be significantly lower, and so will the bills.
"Providing that the (town's operating) budget is level, this will provide the average taxpayer with some relief," he said.
But Sherman said that any decrease in the town portion of residents' tax bills will be almost offset by an increase of about $200 on average due to new projects approved on the school district's ballot in March.
Information on assessments, ratios and distributions will be added to the town's Web site — www.plaistow.com — and Corcoran said he will hold informal hearings in late August to answer residents' questions.