Archive for the 'West Hartford' Category
West Hartford Revaluation 2011 – Mill Rate Estimate
Last Tuesday we wrote about the West Hartford revaluation, focusing on the informal hearings that allow individual property owners to challenge the market values that they received in the mail from the Town.
Today we turn our attention to analyzing the big picture results of the revaluation. Amanda Falcone’s piece in the Thursday’s Hartford Courant quotes West Hartford Assessor Joseph Dakers Sr. as saying the new market values will “likely cause the town’s grand list to decrease by 5.6%, or about $316 million.”
Based on that statement, and a number of additional steady state assumptions detailed below, we’re projecting the new mill rate to end up somewhere between 33 and 34 mills. If accurate, it would represent about a 2% average increase in the tax burden on real property owners, and a 15% decrease taxes on personal property (business equipment) and motor vehicles.
We would expect individual property owners to experience much larger swings in their tax burdens depending on their specific properties. Some will experience larger increases, while others will see their taxes go down. It will all depend on how their individual properties were assessed during each of the two previous revaluations. A ballpark figure for future tax burden can be calculated using the following formula:
Our mill rate is a very rough estimate, but we feel it is an accurate depiction of what is likely to happen if the proposed market values hold and basically everything else stays the same. It analyzes the impact of the revaluation without addressing any other factors that may impact the Town budget.
Please feel free to check our work, which is shown below in detail, and post your thoughts in the comments.
Step 1: Interpreting the Data
The whole calculation is based on the Town Assessor’s statement that $316 million is about 5.6% of Grand List 2010. So:
The context of the quote doesn’t specify exactly what the Assessor means when he says “Grand List.” Is he talking about the market values, Gross Assessment (70% of market value), or the Net Assessment (after all exemptions are subtracted out)? Is it for only Real Property or does it include Personal Property and Motor Vehicles?
Last year I worked with the Assessor a bit when Grand List 2010 was released, modeling the whole system. In comparing the “Grand List” number he seems to be working with now to that spreadsheet, my conclusion is that he is talking about the total Gross Assessment for Real Property. Since the revaluation is focused exclusively on Real Property, this seems like a reasonable conclusion. Below is a summary of the taxes generated last year by Grand List 2010 (Note: Gross Assessment and Exemptions sourced from a report emailed to me by the Town Assessor in February 2010).
These calculations show that the Town would have sent out property tax bills totaling about $197 million. Page F-2 of the 2011-2012 Annual Town Budget shows a table summarizing the Town’s revenues, discussing property taxes, and showing the tax collection rate. It shows Current Property Taxes in the Fiscal Year 2012 Adopted Budget as $195,496,802. So our calculation of the billings is quite close to what the Town expected to receive – a good sign. Our calculation gets even closer to the target when we include their assumed 99% tax collection rate.
Step 2: Defining Assumptions
The agreement of our calculation with the Town Assessor’s quote and the expected revenue provide enough confidence to move on to the next stage of the calculation. But before we can run more numbers, we need to be explicit about our assumptions. Here are the five main assumptions in our forward looking analysis and projections.
1. The Town Assessor was properly quoted in the Courant, and we have properly interpreted what he said. The discussion above provides two independent points of collaboration, which makes us feel good.
2. Personal Property and Motor Vehicle Gross Assessments remain unchanged.
3. Town revenue raised from Property Taxes remains unchanged.
4. All phase-in exemptions are eliminated. We’ve discussed the frozen phase-in elsewhere and will skip over it this time. It’s important, but is not the focus of this analysis.
5. All “normal” exemptions remain unchanged.
Step 3: Projecting Grand List 2011
Now we’re ready to update the table from above to reflect our assumptions for Grand List 2011.
First we calculated the new Gross Assessment for Real Property by subtracting $316 million. Next, we eliminated the Phase-In Exemptions, so everyone is taxed based on the market values determined by this revaluation. Finally, we optimized the Mill Rate so that the total Tax Revenue exactly equals the previous table.
The resulting 33.67 mill rate is more precise that we can reasonably calculate given the rough nature of this estimate, so at the top of the story we said that it would end up somewhere between 33 and 34.
So there it is, our attempt to ballpark the West Hartford mill rate for the tax year starting in July 2012. We have no doubt that there will be factors outside of the revaluation that will impact the Town, and therefore the budget. However, we hope this provides a starting point for understanding how the revaluation will impact property tax revenue.
Again, please feel free to post questions, concerns, and thoughts in the comments section.
Related Posts
West Hartford Revaluation 2011 – Informal Hearings
West Hartford Revaluation
West Hartford Revaluation, Part II
Property Taxes and Revaluations
West Hartford Revaluation 2011 – Informal Hearings
West Hartford’s 2011 revaluation is progressing smoothly, and reached the public phase when Market Value letters began arriving during the second half of November.
Before going any further, it is very important to emphasize three key points:
1. Property taxes don’t change until July 2012.
2. Taxes would be calculated based on the “New Property Assessment” in the bottom right of the letter, not the market value.
3. The mill rate will change, so multiplying the current mill rate by the “New Property Assessment” is not a reliable estimate of future taxes.
Although the overall timeline extends through spring and into July, there is immediate action required for West Hartford homeowners who are concerned about the Market Values assigned to their properties.
The Town will be holding informal hearings on proposed market values through most of the month of December. Owners who wish to challenge their value need to call 860-561-7598 by Friday 12/9/2011 between 9:00 and 4:00 in order to schedule a one-on-one appointment.
Once you’re on the schedule, you should gather some market data to support your contention that the market value assigned to your property is too high. There are a couple of primary sources of information. The Assessor’s office has a number of large binders on their public tables in which you can look up sales information. They have also loaded the new market values of all the properties in town into the Vision Database. Finally, real estate agents can also help by gathering data through the MLS.
We have been in contact with the Assessor’s office in an effort to understand the big picture results of the revaluation. Most importantly, we have asked for their rough projections of what the mill rate would be if the current proposed market values held, and if the Town budget remained flat. We have also asked for data that will (hopefully) allow us to run different projections and scenarios of our own.
Until the Assessor’s office comes though with some information, our observations are limited to what we discover by looking at the market values of individual homes through the Vision system.
Most properties that we have reviewed showed a decreasing market value compared to the previous year, which is actually the value of the property according to the 2006 revaluation. Decreasing market values make sense since the market has definitely weakened over the past five years.
Comparing the new market value to the old market value is interesting, but not terribly useful. After the 2006 revaluation the Town decided to phase in the new values, but later froze the phase-in after the second year. The result of this decision is that for many homeowners the new market value is actually higher than the one on which their taxes are currently calculated.
For example, one home in Town was assigned a value of about $280k in the 2006 revaluation. Two years into the phase-in the taxable market value had increased to about $210k – still considerably below fair market. That value got locked in once the phase-in was frozen. Revaluation 2011 has set the value of this home at about $270k, so even though the market value has fallen since 2006, it’s still going to experience a step up in taxable market value. (We know this is confusing, it took us quite a while to understand, and model, the 2006 phase-in. Please feel free to email questions or post them in the comments.)
The revaluation has not treated all homes that sold in 2011 equally. Some properties that sold were assigned their sales price as the market value, which seems quite reasonable. Others were not … we saw one that was assigned a value meaningfully lower than the sales price.
That’s all we have for the moment. Check back in over the coming weeks – we’ll post additional information and analysis as it is available. And West Hartford homeowners, don’t forget to review the proposed market values in the letters you received and decide if you want to challenge your values.
Related Posts
West Hartford Revaluation
West Hartford Revaluation, Part II
Property Taxes and Revaluations
Interesting Interior Architectural Features
Checking out the inside of many different houses is a great perk of being a real estate agent. I’m not at all curious about the homeowners’ stuff, or how they live, rather I love to look at the design and architecture of different homes. Looking at the outside is nice, but the interiors can be even more interesting.
I see a lot of structures from the 1890s through the present day. The housing stock in Greater Hartford has been gradually built up through the years, with different towns and neighborhoods developed in different eras. Each period has design characteristics that reflect the priorities of the times. My favorite era was around the turn of the century when single family homes had evolved into basically their modern form, yet still had a lot of interesting, and custom, features.
At the top of my list of favorite interior architectural details are transom windows, which are windows over doors. Some still even work, with the mechanisms in place that can open and close the windows. They are not all that common, but I sometimes see them in homes built around 1900 – generally in properties in the West End of Hartford. The brief Wikipedia page for transom windows notes that they were “a common feature in office buildings and apartments before air conditioning became common.” The idea being that it’s a good way to encourage air circulation in a building while maintaining a certain amount of privacy.
Another favorite are pocket doors, which slide into the walls when they’re not in use. The fact that they’re hidden is part of their charm – it’s a nice surprise when they get pulled out. And when they are closed, pocket doors are usually in great shape, since homeowners rarely use them. More often than not they match the style and finish of the normal sized doors in the home.
Finally, I really like built-in cabinetry. Most of the time it takes the form of shelving in the living room, china cabinets in the dining room, and the butler’s pantry. Built-ins are usually more practical than dazzling, but I appreciate how the architects and builders made an effort to thoughtfully utilize all the space in a home. They’re functional, and they help define how the different spaces might be used.
Transom windows, pocket doors, and built-in cabinetry are just a few of the interior architectural elements available in Greater Hartford. They happen to be some of my favorites, but not the only things about a home that make it shine.
What interior architectural features do you look for in a home?
A Biking Real Estate Agent
About a month ago I wrote a story about wanting to use my bicycle more for real estate. We have many regular readers who are bike enthusiasts, who were all very supportive of my effort … thank you for that.
I’m happy to report that I’ve made good progress on my goal. Most importantly, I’ve eliminated some of the physical and mental barriers that I felt were keeping me from truly embracing the bike. The most important turned out to be finding a more convenient place to store my ride so that it’s easy to just get started. A close second was figuring out a way to secure my pant legs so that they would be less likely to get greasy. Beyond that, most of my concerns were mental issues.
Since the initial post I’ve ridden many places, and to different types of appointments. Most have been short jaunts where biking is just as fast as driving, but there have been a few longer ones too. I still believe biking is better for trips that don’t involve client interaction, but I’m beginning to come around on that front too. Especially since, as a couple commenters pointed out, biking gets easier as you get in better shape.
I’m hoping to keep riding as long as possible this season because it is a nice way to travel. I’ve been impressed that distances seem shorter on the bike than they do in the car sometimes – perhaps I’m enjoying the trip more? And when my destination does not have easy parking in front, riding is really nice because I can usually lock up outside the front door and save a meaningful amount of parking and walking time.
Thanks again for the encouragement, and enjoy the mild weather!
Burgers Around Hartford
The Hartford area has become a hot spot for hamburger restaurants. We’ve always had the fast food places, like McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and the like, but over the past two years there has be an explosion of more upscale places featuring the burger.
We like burgers, and have tried many of the options (though not all … yet). Each offers something a little different, and has their own strengths and weaknesses. In alphabetical order:
- The Burger Joint: West Hartford Center
- The Counter Burger: West Hartford Center
- Five Guys Burgers & Fries: Avon, Farmington, Enfield
- Goldburgers: Newington
- Jake’s Wayback Burgers: Rocky Hill, East Windsor, West Hartford*
- Max Burger: West Hartford Center
- Mooyah Burger: Downtown Hartford, West Hartford*
- Plan B Burger Bar: West Hartford, Glastonbury, Simsbury
- Red Robin Gourmet Burgers: West Hartford, Manchester, Enfield
* Announced, but not open, as of 11/10/2011
Another Note: This is not the complete list of places to get yummy hamburgers, just a list of restaurants with a strong burger theme. And it’s not even complete in this subset. At the time of the writing, a place called Burger Baby was announced for Downtown Hartford (hopefully the website will be up by the time you read this)
For me (Kyle), there is no one place that has the best of everything. If it were possible to mix and match a meal, I would get my burger at Five Guys, onion rings at Counter Burger, and a shake from The Burger Joint. The Five Guys fries are also top notch, and the price is at the lower end (since it’s more like fast food than fine dining), so I tend to gravitate there even though milkshakes are not available.
Amy agrees that there is no one restaurant that hits the magical burger-fries/rings-shake trifecta. She is partial to the Plan B burger, the Five Guys fries, and the Counter Burger shake. She also noted that she felt like she needed to do more research into the matter since we haven’t thoroughly vetted all the options. Mmmm, sounds like delicious work…
So readers, what do you see as the best-of-the-best out there?