WWTBAM Bored

Warm and rainy here this morning. I thought about taking the day off and going to the Extreme Makeover home for the big reveal, but it's at 2PM this afternoon, with weather expected to be very rainy. Plus I'd probably have to be there by now in order to get close enough to actually see anything - they are expecting hundreds of spectators to show up. My second son, elrond, is planning on taking off a half-day to go, but I suspect he'll be too far back to see much.

The local ABC affiliate has been doing nightly stories about the house - last night they interviewed the CEO of the construction firm doing the work. He said that the house would probably be valued at $1M+ as a result of all the improvements and high-tech gear installed. The reporter asked if the family would have to pay property taxes on the value of the home. The CEO said yes, and furthermore the other homes in the area will probably see an increase in their property taxes as well.

Interestingly enough we spoke with a woman who had just bought the house two doors away from the Extreme Makeover site. She was thrilled to see this going in her neighborhood but I wonder how thrilled she'll be when she gets the assessment.

Here in California, if you have lived in a house for a long time, your taxes are cheaper than if you had just bought the house. If you do renovations on your house, you can pretty much tear down all of the existing structure, but leave one wall, and you will still qualify for the lower tax rate, with small modifications for improvements. Once you completely demolish all of the buildings, your tax base will increase substatially.

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:Here in California, if you have lived in a house for a long time, your taxes are cheaper than if you had just bought the house. If you do renovations on your house, you can pretty much tear down all of the existing structure, but leave one wall, and you will still qualify for the lower tax rate, with small modifications for improvements. Once you completely demolish all of the buildings, your tax base will increase substatially.

Thank Howard Jarvis.