Thanks for this blog.
I live in the Clarendon II townhouse in North Fairlington I purchased for $150,000 in the mid-90's. My assessment increased by $41,000 this year from $364,300 last year to $405,300. I haven't done anything much to my condo over the past 17 years, a few minor interior upgrades (renovated kitchen and new bathroom fixtures, nothing major that requires a building permit), new appliances, new heat pump, and so on.
So, why are ALL the Clarendon II condo units in Fairlington being bumped up by $41,000 no matter whether the owners applied and received multiple building permits for major upgrades or have have made few or no improvements except for replacing appliances? Same for the larger Clarendon I condos in South Fairlington. But their assessments increased by about $20,000 this year. Moreover, having visited the County Assessor's Web site it is most disconcerting to see that the smallest and most affordable condo units in Fairlington were hit with massive assessment increases. And we're talking about 1-bedroom condo units occupied by retirees who have lived here for 35 years.
Appears that the same occurred in other condo communities across the County that have various units with various amounts of interior space. The most affordable condominium housing got hit with the biggest assessment increases in 2014. What kind of Smart Growth is that?
Janet 22206
18 comments:
When asked about this at the C.B. last Saturday, your fellow Fairlington resident, County Board Member Libby Garvey, admitted she hadn't yet opened her assessment notice, so was clueless about these assessment charades.
THANK YOU, Cindy, for exposing this rip off of middle class condominium homeowners (many on fixed incomes) that's gone on in Arlington for way too long.
CORD FOR BOARD !!!
Burns me up that my neighbor two doors down obtained multiple permits from the County for massive renovations to her Fairlington condo, costing (as she bragged ) $150,000 and will pay the same as I will in 2014 real estate taxes on my increasingly unaffordable Clarendon 1 in Libby's neighborhood.
CORD FOR BOARD !!
Another reason 'affordable housing' is an oxymoron is Arlington.
What kind of affordable housing is that? More of the same anti-middle class gentrification from Chris Zimmerman and his good buds at Coalition for Smarter Growth and Smart Growth America.
CORD FOR BOARD !!
I live in a large condominium building in Ballston. The 1-bedroom units all wre hit with massive assessment increases.
Affordable housing? LOL. Check out Saturday's CB meeting. APAH is spending $383,000 per unit constructing an 'affordable' apartment building off Glebe Road with a laundry list of expensive amenities. Which none of the service workers employed in restaurants and retail nearby will be able to afford to live.
Which the neighborhood opposed as being another APAH charade inflicted on them, but who cares what neighborhood residents think anymore.
If you go to arlingtonva.us and go to the on-line assessments page and leave the street address box blank you will see the assessments for all the residences on that street, and you can see that the same tiny condos all were hit with big assessment increases, while the largest condos on the street had little or no assessment increases.
People, NONE of the decisions (big or small) made about ANYTHING in this County are made by County residents.
So you live in a small condo and are retired and don't have much money for home improvements except upkeep and appliance replacement. Your next door neighbor spends $75,000 on a complete makeover of her condo, same floor plan as yours, applies for building permits, and has County building inspectors visit repeatedly. Lives in her condo for 3 years until she is promoted and relocated. During those three years her condo and your condo are assessed exactly the same. When she sells her condo for a premium because of the makeover the selling price is used by the Assessor's Office to re-assess ALL the condos with the same floor plan in the neighborhood to the sales price of your neighbor's condo. What kind of 'assessment system' is that?
People in Assessor's Office don't live in Arlington either.
Know what Arlington is all about? We're an employment program for non-residents whose primary 'work' activity is to keep themselves employed until they retire by inflicting various expensive and human resources-consuming governmental policies, programs, and activities on residents.
Also, inflict public infrastructure on us that they would never tolerate near their upscale suburban enclaves in Fairfax County.....a new fire academy near an elementary school.
Worst are the non-residents who commute to Arlington one per big SUV or pickup truck to promote the County Board's 'car free diet'.
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