Can an Appraisal for a Home Be Lower Than the Tax Assessed Value?

Assessed Value

The assessed value is the amount a county assessor comes up with for your home. This value is not based on any appraisal done by a real estate appraiser. Typically, the assessor will not even come to your home. He will assign a value based on recent sales in the area and statistics about your house, such as the square footage and the number of bedrooms. Because of this, the value can be different than the appraised value.

The appraised value is the value of the house as determined by a real estate appraiser. A real estate appraiser will use one of three methods to figure out the value of the real estate. The real estate appraiser may use the market-value approach, which involves comparing the value of your house to other homes that have recently sold. He may also determine the value of the property based on the income method, which looks at how much it could earn. He may also use the cost approach, which looks at how much the property would cost to build, minus depreciation.

One of the differences between appraised value and assessed value is the level of detail involved in coming up with the estimates. The assessor typically does not go into great detail when coming up with the value of a house. A real estate appraiser will actually visit the house and do a large amount of research to come up with a value. Typically, real estate appraisers are more accurate at determining the actual value of a house.

The appraisal and the assessment are used for two different purposes. An assessment is used by local governments to determine how much to charge in property taxes. A real estate appraisal can be ordered by a homeowner to determine the value of the home, and it is also used by lenders. Lenders require an appraisal so that they can determine how much to lend against a piece of property. You must pay for an appraisal, while an assessment is done without extra cost.