Shouldn't lower prices mean lower prop. taxes?

[Jason F]

Here's a question:

When home prices were going through the roof, property taxes (which use home sales as drivers) were increasing as well, in some areas, by a lot.

There were a lot of new homes which means new tax dollars and a lot of historically high sales comps for many municipalities.

Okay, now that prices have fallen by as much as they have, do you feel that the local property taxing authorities have adjusted their assessed values as quickly downward as they did when prices going up. Here in Gainesville, FL, prices haven't dropped as severely as other areas, but even here I don't see as much of a reflection on my properties.

What about other areas? If the 'value of your home' which is derived from comparable sales prices, drops by 30%, shouldn't your tax bill? Has it?

On a side note, shouldn't we see some crazy community improvements as a result of the unexpected tax revenues throughout the early 2000s? As people made money because of high property values, so did the counties throughout America. Where's my monorail?

[Will Barnard]

Jon,

YOu misspoke when you said probably!
Here in CA, where we had the largest rapid level of appreciation in RE, the state received huge amounts of unexpected revenue from prop taxes, and today, are screaming that they are out of money. Go figure!