Laconia Taxes
 

Just received my new tax bill, the assessed valuation has gone up dramatically. My land value has gone up over 35%, and building value has gone up over 15%. Which has caused my property tax to increase by almost 6%.

How can this happen without a reassessment ?

Are others seeing the same ?

Thanks,
Bill

Yes I have. Same situation my taxes went up 5%. FYI. It’s not only isolated to NH I have the same issue at my primary residence on Long Island NY


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Same here. In my case the waterfront value on Winnisquam has never been higher.


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My taxes went up in Meredith also, along with my assessment. But I'm not complaining because I think Meredith is more reasonable than most of the lakes region towns.

My brother in law has a place in Sanbornton, smaller house than mine and smaller lot with no water rights, and he pays 2K more than me with a much lower assessment. :eek:

Everything is up!
 

Last year (2017) there were several articles about tax increases in the waterfront towns. I have posted links to a couple of the stories about Gilford and Meredith below.

More recently, Laconia found that the waterfront properties in the city were undervalued by about 10% and increased those assessments accordingly.

The 2017 story about Meredith stated that waterfront properties in Meredith had increased in value by as much as 17 percent, according to an analysis of more than 400 real estate sales. Overall, the town’s taxable property value increased by 9 percent, according to Town Manager Phil Warren.


https://www.laconiadailysun.com/news...ad2dd1c06.html

https://www.laconiadailysun.com/news...d0493f73b.html

Laconia's high taxes are having a negative effect on their real estate. You can buy a much nicer waterfront home in Laconia for less money than other towns because their taxes are so high. The same goes for Sanbornton.

How is waterfront defined ? Is it a set distance from the water ?

If I have a clear lake view in an association but have to walk 75 feet down a hill / path to get to the docks what's that qualify as ?

I think waterfront is defined as your own private peace of land on the water.
If you share the waterfront with other people then it's deeded water rights. In that case you all share the taxes on the waterfront lot which is usually in the HOA payment.
Although some older associations have the taxes included on each individual lot for the waterfront lot. I was in an association like that many years ago in Sanbornton where there were 13 lots that shared a 1 acre waterfront lot and we were each assessed a share of the taxes of that waterfront lol on our own tax bills. Thus we had a very small HOA fee which we usually voted on in the spring depending on what work the waterfront lot needed.
The association I'm in now in Meredith is similar. There are only 4 homes that share the waterfront lot and we each are assessed a share of the taxes so we have no HOA fee. We all just share in the cost of dock installation and removal. Since I'm the newest and youngest member I try to take care of the waterfront lot and the docks which is very minimal. We all just get along real well.

It is more important to know that since you have a lake view, your assessed value is higher thus you pay a higher tax than lets say a neighbor next door who can't see the lake.

Even if you don't look at it you still have to pay up! :D I only have a view in the winter when the trees are bare. Thank god the evaluators came out in August.

I guess it's all in the appraised value in my case. 80% of us have some level of water view, which gets progressively worse as you go further back until its blocked completely a few hundred feet away.

Fees are flat for every unit, but when I look up appraised value I am ~ 150-200k above someone ~ 500 feet further back from the lake than I am. So I guess that's fair, I pay more for a nice view and a shorter walk to the water.

The reassessment process looks at each house to determine that it is correctly described as relates to taxable items such as square footage, heated spaces, number of bedrooms, types of finish, etc. . This is an expensive process and is usually not done every year.

But every year there is an examination of the real estate that is sold and an estimation of any increase or decrease of value in each community and according to the types of property. This can be used to estimate changes across all properties to maintain equity in appraisals across the state. This is used to calculate the equalization ratios for the community which I believe is set by the state. That is what adjusts the appraised value (which might have been calculated a couple years ago) to the current taxable value which could have increased even though no reappraisal was done.

I'm not sure I have all the nuances right but that's the general process.

Of course, your taxes only go up if YOUR property increases COMPARED to others or because the budget goes up. If everyone's land value increased 35% and building value by 15% and the budget remained the same, your taxes wouldn't change even though your property is more valuable. Everyone's property could have gone up the same amount but the Laconia/County/State budget could have increased by 6% and the tax increase would be due to that alone. Or, it could be a little of both, comparative value increase AND budget increase.