The discussion came up today about tax assessment vs. market value of residential property.  I want to choose my words wisely before posting my answer.  A property assessed at 100% value should be very close or equal to the market value of a property.  But this is just not always the case.  An assessment of course is for tax purposes, whereas a fair market value is what a ready, willing, able and informed buyer would pay and a ready willing, able and informed seller would accept, neither being under pressure to act.  The procedure to establish a taxable value is very similar to a comparative market analysis.  There should be at least three closed comparable sales within a short radius of the subject property.  Most of our area assessments are not done by entering the property.  Not to say that the assessor is not doing thier job, but assessing a whole village or town can take a very long time.  It is very possible that the assessed value does not take into consideration damages or improvements.  There also may be a lack of good comparable sales.  Knowing this, you are always given a chance to argue your assessment and go to arbitration if necessary.  An assessment is not a true figure for fair market value!  If you disagree with your Realtor as to the asking/ listing price for your home, ask them to prepare a comparative market analysis to show the basis for this price.  Realtors pay money annualy for access to the  sales data to properly price a property.  In a perfect real estate world, assessment and market value figures would match, but in my experience they rarely do.

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