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With falling home prices in San Diego, California (and across the nation), homeowners can receive a little relief in temporarily lowering their home assessment, resulting in lower property taxes.  Since property taxes are usually ~1% of your home’s sale price, this can be a savings of ~1000s  of dollars.  This will typically help those who have recently purchased a home, since sales prices of homes which have been owned for a while are not lower than todays prices.

Summary from the application:

Under State law, (Proposition 8), if the current market value of your property, as of January 1, 2009, falls below the assessed or taxable value as shown on your tax bill, the Assessor’s Office is required to temporarily lower the assessment. This type of property tax relief generally applies to more recently purchased properties. If you feel you qualify for this reduction, please file this form with the Assessor’s Office between January 1 and May 30. Please indicate your opinion of value by providing supporting documentation, such as sales of comparable properties or a recent appraisal.

Our staff will review your application, and the property owner will be notified of the results in July. If the property owner disagrees with the value at that time, they must file an assessment appeal with the Clerk of the Assessment Appeals Board between July 2 and November 30. The necessary application can be obtained by calling the Clerk’s Office at (619) 531-5777.

I’ve received several notices in the mail about this company and that company offering to handle the application process themselves for a fee (~$100).  Here is how you can do it yourself for free with four easy links:

1. Check your current property taxes and home assessment here.
2. Check www.zillow.com or www.redfin.com for recent home sales in your neighborhood.  Make note of addresses of homes similiar to your own and their sales prices in from 10/08 to 03/09.
3. If homes that are similar to your home are selling for much lower than your home’s assessed value, start with the application here.
4. Find the Parcel Numbers for addreses here.

[optional] Feel free to paypal (ddhoffman.seller [at] gmail [dot] com) me if this information helped you :)