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1. Where can I find the detail on my property?

Property record cards, which contain ownership information, visit history, land and building details, and other notes, and which display a property’s valuation, are available in the Assessors’ Office, 6 School Street Merrimac, MA 01860.

There is no charge for your own property record card. You can also view many of these details online using the link available on this website.

2. What do the assessors look at when determining an assessment?

The assessor collects many data elements about a property in order to develop the total valuation. The most significant factors in determining the value are location and land area and style, quality, size, condition and age of the building(s).

Other factors include amenities or detriments on the land as well as features in the building such as number of bathrooms, type of heating/cooling, interior/exterior finishes, and special features including fireplaces, saunas and jacuzzi's. Also considered are detached structures.

3. How do I know if my valuation is fair and equitable?

The best comparisons are to properties that have sold that are the most similar in the most aspects to your property. You can also compare your property’s assessment to the assessments of the most similar properties. Although properties will most likely never be a perfect match, assessments for similar properties should fall in a close range of valuations.

4. How can my assessed value increase or decrease when I did not do anything to the property in 5 years and I am not selling the property?

The assessed value represents the estimate of market value of the property. The real estate market changes constantly. The assessment for FY2009 represents the estimate of market value as of January 1, 2008. This estimate of market value is determined by examining sales of properties from calendar year 2007.

Although there may not have been any physical changes to the property, buyers may be paying more or less for properties than they were in previous years. The assessment changes reflect the changes in the purchase prices of similar homes in the neighborhood. The assessments do not predict market value. The assessments reflect (or report) market value. The real estate market can change dramatically from year to year. Buyers and sellers determine the market value of properties. The assessments reflect what the buyers and sellers are doing as of the assessment date.

5. What will happen if I put an addition on my property? Are the actual construction costs of a new home used to determine the new assessment?

Historical sales have indicated that larger properties sell for more than smaller properties with all other factors being equal. If an addition is put on a home, the house becomes larger. The assessors would then have to see what similarly sized properties were selling for in the neighborhood.

It is highly likely that the assessed value of your property will increase once the addition is put on the property. Generally speaking, improvements that increase the market value of a property will increase the assessment.

6. Why did my valuation change from the prior year’s valuation more or less than my neighbor’s?

Market value changes occur in many forms. From year to year economic conditions and local factors change and influence the values of different classes of property in different ways. Buyers have different requirements and these requirements sometimes change from year to year. Renovations may have been performed on a property that would cause a change in assessed value different from a similar property that did not undergo renovations.

A recent inspection by the Assessor’s office also may have contributed to a change in assessed value, perhaps adding something that had been missed or reducing something that was overstated. Your style or size or land area or other factor(s) may differ from your neighbor’s and that caused the valuation changes to differ.

7. I think my assessment is out of line with my neighbor’s property, whose property is assessed lower. I want my assessment to be as low as theirs.

The first step in comparing properties is to examine the factual components of each property. Many times properties that appear larger are in fact much smaller than people think. Quality characteristics should also be examined when making comparisons. Ultimately, the assessors have to determine in the assessment represents market value on the subject property and also if the assessed value on the neighbor’s property represents market value. If a neighboring property is too low in relation to surrounding properties, the assessors cannot compound their low assessment by also lowering surrounding properties.

The resolution may be that the assessors have to raise the neighboring property’s assessed value to make it more in line with the surrounding properties. The most important criterion the assessors examine in an abatement request is the market value of the property of the person filing the abatement and the market value of any property that the person filing the abatement mentions on the application.

8. I recently purchased my home for a price which is different than the valuation for this year. How is this possible?

The real estate market is not a “perfect market” and price is not always equal to value. Similar properties usually do not sell for exactly the same price because the motivations of buyers and sellers are not always similar. Similar properties usually tend to sell within a “value range” rather than for one specific price. According to the definition of fair market value, your value represents “the most probable selling price” and tends to be the middle of the range of what similar properties have recently sold for. Therefore, your appraised value could be higher or lower than what you actually paid for your property.

In addition, state laws (statues) require that real estate be assessed at 100% of market value as of January 1 immediately preceding the current fiscal year. This is the assessment date. The sales considered in order to determine the market value are those that took place during the calendar year prior to the assessment date. If your sale took place subsequent to the assessment date, it will be in the group of sales analyzed in the preparation of the following year’s valuations, and is not relevant to the current year’s valuation.