"Reval" and Mill Rates in New Milford, CT. The tax man commeth 2010!
Everywhere you go these days in New Milford, CT you hear people talking about the revaluation and the budget. We are in the middle of our revaluation in New Milford, CT. (The state mandates towns in CT must go through revaluations every 5 years) The tax man commeth, well, not the tax man but indeed there are people out there knocking on your door to look at your house for the reval. New Milford, CT revaluation is done by Vision Appraisal. They all should have identification, if you are in doubt if the person knocking on your door is who they say they are, call the Tax Assessor's Office or the New Milford Police Department. After they visit you, you will be asked to sign a paper that says the inspection actually took place. Here is the thing, if you don't let them in, they have to try again, and again and again. They have to prove to the town an attempt was made. And then, they will have to GUESS what you have. Will they guess you have more than you have? Could be.
What are they looking for? Style, size, (bedrooms, bathrooms, physical size) improvements, utilities (type of heat, etc.) condition of your home, they will check for any zoning restrictions etc. After this portion of the revaluation takes place the appraiser will be looking at recent sales and market trends in the town. The comes the dreaded valuation. Check out the information the town of New Milford, CT has put on their website for more information on the process itself.
Remember the assessed rate that you pay taxes on is 70% of the assessed value. So if your home was appraised at $400,000 it will show up on the field card as $280,000. This is the base you pay taxes on!
What is a mill rate anyway?
A mill rate is the amount of tax dollar on assessed value of a property. One "mill" is one/tenth of a cent.
I know everyone is worried that the revaluation will increase their property taxes. Actually what increases your property taxes are the mill rates set by the town. Paying attention to the town budget in New Milford, CT is key. Our mill rate is directly affected by the town budget.
How does the town come up with the mill rate? Simple math actually. The towns Grand List divided by the budget equals the mill rate. Currently the mill rate in New Milford, CT is 22.52 or, for every $1,000 in assessed property value you pay $22.52 in property tax.
If you want to check out what the town currently has on your home try visiting www.visionappraisal.com. New Milford, CT requires registration, but there is no charge for this. You can also visit the New Milford Town Hall, go to the Tax Assessors office on the first floor and ask to see the "field card" for your home. It is public information and it is your right! Of course right now you will be looking at the current information the town has from the last reval, but it is a starting point.
Andrea Swiedler, Realtor® & Liddy Adams, GRI, Broker Associate
Cell: 203.460.1775 Email: andrea@andreaswiedler.com
Swiedler & Adams, we know real estate!
Prudential Connecticut Realty, New Milford & Litchfield, CT
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© Andrea Swiedler, 2009 - 2012
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I don't believe that every 5 years is often enough.
MD assesses every 3 years.
My county in VA assesses every year.
Keeps things more in touch with reality of the market.
Lenn, it was every 10 years, can you imagine? So it is a start, 5 is better than 10. But you are so right, if they are not in touch with the reality of the market is causes big problems.
I am sure you will have people waiting in line to try to get an abatement on their taxes.
Bill, of that I am sure. It is such a difficult time, and many just don't understand the process.
Andrea, your town will actually get a better realistic evaluation on their homes because of using 2009 figures. Many towns in Ct were re-evaluated with 2006-2007 numbers all of which are overvalued for the current market. It will take years to get these homes back in line. For those towns the bigger problem will come when the next evaluation is done and the towns will be looking at a drop in values based on the real market. That's when the mill rates will really hit the fan.
Now is the time to start advertising market analysis' for homeowners looking to challenge their re-evaluation. Especially with VA doing the job. They are under fire by many towns in the region because of the computer modeling they use to do the re-evaluation.
Ed, you are so right about the timing, couldn't be better for New Milford taxpayers! VA is certainly better than the company that did Washington and Torrington. Talk about disaster!
Andrea, Interesting that you actually have people coming door to door to come into your homes so they can determine what the "true" value of the property is. I would think this would certainly be a way of getting more accurate information on homes in your area.
Ah property taxes, one of my favorite subjects. I agree with Ed, good timing my friend.
Your property tax rate is higher than here in California! I guess I'm not going to be moving to Connecticut anytime soon, not that I was going to anyway since y'all get white stuff on the ground during the winter months. LOL
Sandy, the unfortunate part is they don't get into many of them, but it is a good idea for sure!
JL, it really is good timing for the taxpayers in New Milford, at least for the next 5 years!
Russel, it goes up and down, and depends on what town you live in. But if you are afraid of the white stuff stay away!