How do you know how much something is worth? Well, the main method is to...sell it. Whatever you get for it, that's what it's worth.
However, you can't always sell the thing in question in order to get a read on its value. Take your house. You need to know how much it's worth. The government uses the value to assign taxes. You can use the value to get home equity loans or to refinance. For these reasons, you want to know how much you could get for the home if you did sell it...but you don't actually want to sell it.
One way to come up with an estimate is to use the sales comparison approach. It's a relatively simple process. The appraiser looks at what prices similar houses went for, then uses that info to make a judgment on the value of your house. So she'll look at other houses in your area, with similar amenities and similar sizes. She can also use aggregate estimates, if there aren't enough directly similar houses to make a firm appraisal. Like, she can use data from other houses to estimate the value of having a pool, or what your recent kitchen upgrade would add. All this info gets put together to arrive at a total estimate for the value of the house.
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Finance: What is Assessed Value?6 Views
finance a la shmoop what is assessed value well here's ass value, here's asset value.. [Ass eating grass and a house for sale]
that is if you own a home, there really two prices attached to it..
The price you pay for it, or can sell it for, that's the market value of your asset, your
home, and what your home is officially worth according to the government, well that's the assessed value..
the government assessed that your home was in fact worth $412,932
why two sets of house prices well to
keep things you know interesting and to get you to pay your taxes your state [Uncle Sam walks in on man in office]
charges you property tax just for the privilege of living in the state they
charge more for the guy living in the McMansion than they do for the guy
living in the one bedroom bungalow usually but they still need to figure [Large mansion and small bungalow]
out who pays what each state has a little different taxation system and some
states use a formula based on what you paid for the house or what your house is
accessed or perceived value is in California for example you pony up one
point two five percent of the purchase price the price you paid for your home
within some subsequent adjustments for inflation over time that's the rate pay [Inflation chart over time]
based on the purchase price the market price in other states the value of the
house carries an assessed value that is an assessor takes a look at your home
every so often and comes up with a dollar figure of what they guess the [Assessor person beside the assessed property]
house is well officially worth for tax purposes usually that number is lower
than what you actually paid for your house or what it would get if you would
sell it in the marketplace you know if you whine loud enough the assessor may
make an adjustment so that for at least that year your tax bill can come down [Man celebrates with assessor]
yeah whining about taxes it can have its benefits people and all that whining
yeah it'll make you feel like one of these guys