Today we begin our celebration of Public Service Recognition Week, in which we “honor the people who serve our nation as federal, state, county, local and tribal government employees.”
In writing the post about my mom’s 25th high school reunion, I noticed that Zillow in 2025 displays our old family homestead, which was bulldozed in 2012…
Zillow still shows the crummy 1953 Cape Cod house in which we grew up (address above) and lists the mansion’s 1,603 square feet of space (we also used the basement, though, and a screen porch that was glassed in and maybe isn’t included). However, it was bulldozed within hours of being sold in 2012 and the Indian immigrants who purchased it built a McMansion in its place.
What I didn’t notice until more recently was that the Zillow page indicates that my parents’ old house wasn’t reassessed despite having been bulldozed and replaced by a vastly-more-valuable McMansion:
Montgomery County, Maryland is run by Democrats who would be the first to tell you how much smarter they are than Republicans. Ditto for the state government, which I think might be responsible for assessment. The house next door, 6409 Dahlonega, was bulldozed and its assessed value went up from $382,000 in 2006 to $1.7 million in 2007 (today at $2.2 million). My parents’ old house would have brought in more than double the current property tax over the past 13 years if it had been assessed at market rates.
(Incidentally, the people who built the magnificent edifice at 6409 Dahlonega are no longer paying property, income, or, when the time comes, estate taxes to Montgomery County/Maryland. They moved to Clearwater Beach, Florida towards the tail-end of coronapanic.)
These data shatter my preconceptions about government, which I thought was a well-oiled machine for collecting maximum taxes. Maybe there is some rule in Maryland or in Montgomery County that prevents a reassessment after a bulldozing, but I don’t know what it would be.
Anyway, let’s celebrate the property tax assessors of Maryland for their hard work, even if trees obscured their view of the old 1,600-square-foot cottage that was replaced by a hulking McMansion.
Very loosely related…
The { Indians } probably found a way to bribe someone in the assessor’s office, probably a co-ethnic, and supervisors decided to not investigate lest they be considered “racist.”
https://www.news9live.com/world/us-giant-fannie-mae-fires-200-employees-mostly-telugus-over-alleged-donation-scam-2840287
note: “Indian-American Congressman Suhas Subramanyam has launched a probe, demanding due process and an explanation from the company.” Of course when American workers were terminated for no reason and forced to train their Indian replacements, { Suhas Subramanyam } would certainly remind those Americans that “Fannie Mae is an at-will employer, and any employee may be terminated at any time for any reason or for no reason at all.”
Can imagine divorce proceeds & social order have made the CEOs of the house rich in real estate while the CEO’s of the shop are rich in toys but that converges as wealth increases. The very wealthy outsource anything involving a shop or remodeling a house.
May be 2006-2007 was peek of housing bubble and prices were increasing like crazy. In 2012 real estate was not doing good and prices were flat that reflected in appraisal. It is only when you sell that the appraisal will reflect the sell.price. I bought my house in 2013 for $360k in Hillsborough county FL and currently county appraised at $380k and I pay tax for that price.