The recent pullback in market price gives homeowners an opportunity to ease their property tax squeeze if the property was purchased after 2003. The deadline for filing "Decline-In-Value Reassessment Application (Prop. 8) is 12/31/08.

Here a quick outline on how to lower your property tax:

1. Contact me to get comps on the similar houses that was sold from January 1st to March 31. Those are the acceptable comps for the County Assessors to reassess the value of your property.

2. If the value of the comps are lower than your assessed value, file an application with county assessor. Here's the link to the application:

Los Angeles County

San Bernardino County

Riverside County

For those who purchase bank owned or short sale properties, your assessed value may be higher than the purchase price.

Please be sure to take photos of the house prior repair/remodeling to support your argument on the true value of the property at the point of purchase.