Affordable Housing Initiatives in South Florida: Part 5 - The beginnings of a FIX

Legislators consider new proposals for appraising properties in Florida

Mark Hollis of the Sun Sentinel wrote an article today about the first step in changes in Affordable Housing - specifically in South Florida's hot climate...

Today, state officials made the first step in lowering property values and possibly kill an ongoing border war. They have decided that County Appraisers should be basing their appraisals on "as built" not "potential use"...

There are people with great properties that are "in the path of progress" or in "eminent domain" areas that are suffering higher tax rates because the Palm Beach County Appraiser Gary Nikolits has determined that their property value is some huge number not because of what the building as improved is worth but what it would be worth for highest and best use - despite the fact that someone might be living there for 30 years and maybe don't want to sell. In the meantime their house is being taxed to death and they're being forced to sell.

Yay!

And the story is... the Broward County Florida Appraiser's scathing comments about Mr. Nikolits were JUSTIFIED according to State Officials.

The Benefit of this is that when the Legislators do roll back taxes to help taxpayers... the value will be rolled back AND assessed values will be restated as AS IMPROVED - not HABU (Highest and Best Use)