Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

New tax bills likely to upset Southern Nevada homeowners

An increase in property values may have some homeowners seeing red this week when they receive their tax bills in the mail.

Clark County property owners will see an increase, on average, of 8 percent in their property tax over last year, largely due to the rise in land values, Assessor Mark Schofield said.

The Clark County treasurer's office began mailing out the property tax bills Monday, and Schofield said his staff members were bracing themselves for the thousands of complaints likely to pour into his office later this week from upset homeowners.

Schofield told the Clark County commissioners on Tuesday that his office expects to field upwards of 1,700 calls a day beginning today.

The complaints are typical for this time of year, Schofield said, even though homeowners receive their assessed property value in the mail in December.

Homeowners don't correlate the increase in value with an increase in taxes, Schofield said.

"They look at it (the property value card) and they say it seems fair, and they don't realize that that increase means an increase in taxes as well," Schofield said.

The rub comes when they receive their property tax bills in July and it is too late to appeal, Schofield said. Property owners only have until Jan. 15 to appeal the assessed value of their home to the assessor's office.

Once homeowners receive their tax bills, it is too late for the assessor's office to change the property's value, Rocky Steele, assistant director of the Clark County assessor's office, said. The only thing the assessor's office can change now is factual errors -- such as saying the home has a pool when it does not, Steele said.

The 8 percent increase can add up to a few hundred dollars, depending on the home, its location and what, if any, upgrades were made in the last year, Steele said.

For instance, someone with a $250,000 home in Las Vegas would have paid $2,877 in taxes last fiscal year, Steele said. With an 8 percent increase in value and a slight rise in the tax rate, that home would have gone up in value to $270,000, and the homeowner now will pay $3,119 in taxes for the 2004-2005 fiscal year, Steele said.

The $20,000 increase in the home's value translates into an extra $241 in taxes.

Rick Piette, owner of Premier Mortgage Lending Group, said his company usually hears from homeowners concerned about how the tax increase will affect their monthly payments.

"Because you have more equity in your house, you pay more in taxes," he said.

The tax bills for most homeowners are paid as part of their mortgage payment, Piette said, and the notices they are receiving this week are usually courtesy copies. Homeowners should contact their mortgage company to make sure the company received the bill.

Piette said the added value to the home is worth the extra money in taxes, and that the increased tax revenue would help the county.

The increase in property value, as well as the addition of 38,000 new parcels, represents a 14 percent increase in the total tax levy, Clark County Treasurer Laura Fitzpatrick said. The total tax revenue for the county is $1.39 billion.

The revenue is disbursed monthly to state, school district, county, cities, libraries and other special districts.

Officials with the assessor's and treasurer's offices are warning property owners that this year's tax bill will pale in comparison to next year's bill, when the boom in home prices over the past six months will be felt in the property appraisals.

The 2004-2005 tax bill property owners are receiving now is based on June 2003 housing prices, the assessor said, and the real increases in home prices have come since then.

The median sale price for an existing home went from $149,900 to $165,000 in the 12-month period ending June 2003, according to SalesTraq, a local residential real estate research firm. In the year since then, the median home price has gone from $165,000 to $245,000.

Next year's bill is "where you are going to see the huge spike in land values," Schofield said.

While the employees at assessor's office and the treasurer's office are expecting a lot of complaints, most of the people who call about their tax bills just have questions or want to know more about how their property was appraised, authorities in both offices said.

About 780 people formally appealed their property appraisals for this year, after the assessor's office was not able to resolve their disputes, Steele said. The office appraises more than 570,000 parcels.

A non-governmental board of appraisers, businessman and bankers review the appeals, Steele said, ruling in the plaintiff's favor only about 15 percent to 20 percent of the time.

"They're just not happy with the value, but we have followed the law. And the board, they make sure we follow the law," Steele said.

Sun business reporter

Jennifer Shubinski contributed to this story.

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