Fort Bend County appraisal district sued for violating foreclosure law

Fort Bend County homeowners sued the appraisal district for violating the new state low that mandates foreclosures be included in assessing the value of their homes for taxes.

The law was pushed by those who feared appraisers were ignoring foreclosures to protect the tax base of government entities.

Fort Bend, Montgomery and Harries counties have registered 25% increase in foreclosures over these months in 2010 compared with the same period 2009, reveals the data provided by Jim Robinson, Harris County chief appraiser. The number for foreclosures increased by 1,764 to 8,898. The almost two thousand foreclosed properties won’t sell at premium prices. An average price for Harris County foreclosure is around $80,000 or less.

Steven Campbell, lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against Fort Bend appraisal district detailed how a total of five properties in his subdivision section had sold in 2009 and that could be used to calculate the market value of his house for this year taxes. Two of the five were foreclosures, one a short sales and the remaining two were regular sales.

The problem he points is the irrational  8% market value increase of his home.

"The district representative, who denied my request for a major reduction told me at the tape-recorded hearing, that foreclosures aren’t being considered They aren’t in the database," said Campbell.

He then appealed his case to the review board, which cut his home value by 20%, or $80,000.

Another plaintiff in the lawsuit,Jason Gray stated the appraisal district simply refused home to give the data being used to boost his home value. His property – located in Fulshear’s Cross Creek subdivision – went from $236,000 to $251,000 within nine months after he purchased it last year.

"An existing home could be lucky to be what it was worth when we bought it if the economy were stable, but it’s not," said Gray.

Fort Bend County’s property values certified on August 13 are up with 2.4% from last year, the records show. But Whitehead noted that if new additions and construction were removed from the total, residential values would show only a 3.75% increase. At the same time Harris County shows a 1.6% decrease and Montgomery County a 1.5% increase of home values this year.

Posted by Istvan Fekete on Aug 30 2010. Filed under Government, Housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry