• Assessors calculate property assessments each year.house blueprint and house model studio isolated image by dinostock from Fotolia.com
  
  

Perfect World Assessment

• In a perfect world, a home's market value and assessed value would match, states Massachusetts Real Estate News. Assessed value should indicate the value of a house depending on its size, location and special features. Cities use the assessed value to figure property taxes.
  
  

Assessed Value Lags Behind Market Value

• The real estate market rises or falls each year. Sometimes, the market value of a home significantly changes in a mere six months depending on demand. Since city assessors only evaluate assessed value once a year, it can show either much higher or much lower than actual market value. Sometimes assessors don't even re-evaluate every year, which makes the difference even more noticeable .
  
  

Bottom Line

• In a slow and steadily climbing real estate market, assessed value sits slightly lower than market value. If the real estate market dips, however, the assessed value sometimes appears higher than the market value until the assessor gets around to re-evaluating.