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Lower Your Riverside County Property Taxes Now! Free and Legal

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Empire Realty

There are two ways to lower your property taxes in Riverside County which are legal and FREE.

1) If you qualify, appeal your property tax assessment

2) Claimed your Homeowner's Tax Exemption

APPEAL YOUR TAX ASSESSMENT

  • Home values in Riverside County have decreased over the last year, you may be able to lower your property taxes?
  • This will only apply if you purchased your home or have been re-assessed in the last couple of years?

If the above information applies to you, you may be able to do something that will cost you nothing.  This simple process can save you hundreds of dollars in future property taxes.

   

Lower you Property Tax Bill NOW !

Each county operates differently but the simple answer is that all you need to do is ask for your property to be re-assessed.
Some counties are proactive and are already planning on reassessing your area, but their opinion of value may be very conservative.

In 1978, we in California passed Proposition 8, allowing homeowners to request a reassessment of their homes.  More information on Proposition 8.

If prices have declined since you were last assessed this simple process could save you some serious cash.

How much can I save? 
Let's take a home purchased a couple of years ago for $750,000.
With a current tax bill of $9,000 a year, at tax rate of 1.2%. Your tax rate can be as high as 1.9%.
Let's assume that the current value has dropped 10%, not unrealistic in this market, making the current value around $675,000.
The tax bill on a property of that value would be $8,100 or $900 less!  That is a savings of $900 every year that the new lower tax rate applies.

Get started by filing an assessment appeal with County Assessor's Office, Call (951) 955-1060 for the Riverside County Assessor's office and have them send you a Assessment Apeals form, all appeals must be filed with the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors at the County Administrative Center, 4080 Lemon Street, 14th Floor, Riverside CA 92501-3655.

All other counties have this information on-line and make the forms redily available, I guess Riverside feels that fewer people will do this if they make it a little harder, you can go to the exemptions link below for more information.

*****Empire Realty will provide you with a free opinion of value for the assessment appeal, just drop us an e-mail with the address of the property of the property to be reassessed and we will get that information to you. *****

The more value you have lost since the last assessment, the greater you may be able to save!

HOMEOWNERS TAX EXEMPTION

There is also a Homeowner's tax exemption which lowers your homes taxable value by $7,000.  Available only to qualifying owner-occupied homes.

How much can I save? 

Let's use the same example as above, your homes present taxable value is $750,000.
With a current tax bill of $9,000 a year, at tax rate of 1.2%. Your tax rate can be as high as 1.9%.
Let's assume that you qualify for the homeowners tax exemption of $7,000 which brings your taxable home value down to $743,000.
The tax bill on a property of that value would be $8,916 or $84 less!  This amount may seem low but you will save this amount year after year. 

All Riverside County exemptions can be found Here.

For information on purchasing your next home in Riverside County or anywhere in the Inland Empire call Empire Realty at 909-579-6611 or visit us on the web at Empire Realty.

Empire Realty is your one stop shop for information and Full Service at a Discount

Comments (7)

Anonymous
Christian Ritz

Does this also apply to raw land.  I purchased in 2004 and currently building but not near completion until end of year.  Am I eligibile for homeowners exemption at this time or do I have to wait until I am occupying resisdence.  I would also like to know if raw land is also qualified for reassesment on taxes.

 

Thank you

Jul 28, 2008 08:04 AM
#1
Robert Huntsinger
Empire Realty - Upland, CA
Empire Realty Upland, CA - Full Service at a Discount

I do not know for 100% sure.  I would think that raw land would qualify, as for the homeowners exemption I would think that you need to be using the property as your primary residence.

Take care!

RJH

Jul 28, 2008 11:53 AM
Anonymous
Anonymous

This is regarding a property I purchased at Murrieta oak, May of 2008 for 409000. After a month Riverside county send me an assesment for $545000. I appealed it right away,and called the county office. They promised that the real tax pepers will be assesed on the basis of the purchased price. To my surprise I Just received the property Tax bill and the asses value is545,250. Please advise.

Thanks you

10/7/08

Abdul

Oct 07, 2008 06:55 AM
#3
Robert Huntsinger
Empire Realty - Upland, CA
Empire Realty Upland, CA - Full Service at a Discount

Abdul,

I would call the county assessors office and find out when they will be updating the assessed value to the sales price.  Sometimes it takes the county assessors office months to get the update processed from sales information.

The property tax bill you received is the yearly tax bill, the new sales information may not have been recorded yet.  Hopefully they will have it corrected before the tax is due.

Good luck and take care!

RJH 

Oct 08, 2008 02:27 PM
Anonymous
Frank

When is the cutoff date for filing an appeal?

Oct 09, 2008 04:58 AM
#5
Robert Huntsinger
Empire Realty - Upland, CA
Empire Realty Upland, CA - Full Service at a Discount

Here are all the filing deadlines:

Regular Assessments (Decline in Value) July 2 through November 30
File an appeal if you believe the value of your property has decreased and is no longer as high as its assessed value.

Supplemental Assessments Within 60 days of the mailing of the supplemental assessment notice.

A supplemental assessment occurs when your property was reassessed because of a change in ownership (for example, purchase of a new home) or new construction (for example, you added a bedroom.

Escape Assessment Within 60 days of the mailing of the enrollment of escaped assessment notice.

In general, escape assessments are assessments for events that happened in prior years but were not discovered in a timely manner by the Assessor.

Calamity Reassessment Appeals Within 6 months of the mailing of the supplemental assessment notice.

A calamity reassessment is when the Assessor mailed you a reassessment notice because of a natural disaster or other calamity that damaged your property.

Take care!

RJH

Oct 09, 2008 09:09 AM
Anonymous
Kanti Bapu

I like to appeal for property tax, My adress  7204 Sheffield St, Eastvale, Ca 92880

Oct 15, 2012 05:18 AM
#7