by Barbara Mitchell

The City of Auburn, Assessing Division has been engaged in a review of waterfront Taylor Pond property values. This multi-year appraisal process includes an analysis of sales and property inspections.  As of April 1, 2020 the analysis was not complete. As such there will be no market adjustments made for the upcoming tax year as a direct result of the study.

Although there will not be any overall market adjustments for the upcoming tax year, edits to value were necessary for some properties following inspections. These adjustments were for new additions, demolitions, decks, garages, miscellaneous outbuildings, additional bathrooms, condition changes or other corrections that were discovered during the inspections or subsequent to permit work.

The Taylor Pond study includes 196 total parcels. Only 28% of properties saw a value increase. For the most part, any adjustments were minor – often they were less than 1% of the improvement value. Value reductions were posted for 29% of properties and 43% of properties saw no change in value.  The Assessing Division intends to notify all Taylor Pond property owners whether or not their value changed in a letter prior to commitment, although  the COVID-19 outbreak hampered efforts to do this. They hope to notify individual property owners before July 1, 2020.

Homeowners should also be aware that the homestead exemption is being raised from $20,000 to $25,000 this year. This means that many Taylor Pond year round property owners (who have a homestead exemption) will likely see their taxes decrease, even if the property value increases – because very few increased more than $5,000. 

*These increases were overwhelmingly minor, from 0.02% to 14.17%. Only three properties had an improvement value increase greater than 10%.

Source:  www.auburnmaine.gov