Karin's Adventures

For the most part taxes in the USA are lower than in Germany. With the exception of property taxes, which are so high that some people have to move out of their homes because they can't pay the taxes anymore.

In Indiana people voted a tax cap into the Constitution last year. Property tax on people's homes can now be up to 1% of the assessed value. Which means the counties have to raise the property values if they want to collect more taxes.

That explains why, in the middle of an ongoing deep recession and a dead housing market, our property's value miraculously went up a whopping 18% from what it was last year!? I wasn't just going to accept that, so I spent three hours searching for similar properties in our immediate neighborhood that sold within the last 12 months for a price significantly lower than our new assessment.

I went on the Allen County Tax Assessor's own website, entered names of streets in our addition on the search page, and then clicked on every single link that came up. Hundreds of them. I found five properties that sold recently. We submitted an appeal based on my findings - and they really lowered their assessment!

It's now 'only' 9% above last year's - still way higher than what we could sell for, but at least within reason.