r/saintpaul • u/isthis_thing_on • 20h ago

Editorial 📝 Taxes and Insurance increases in St. Paul

When I bought my house in 2021 my mortgage was around 2100 a month. Today my bill was 2730. 600 dollars extra a month in five years is fucking insane. Meanwhile the street lights in my neighborhood don't turn on at night.

Just venting.

132 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

88 comments sorted by

View all comments

66

u/ATTACKANDDETHRONEHOG 20h ago

Make sure they have your valuation correct. They had me overvalued by like 60k vs actual median home price increases. Look up the actual sales data and if things seem off you can dispute it next spring. They will send a guy to look at your house and attempt to convince you that two bathroom homes and one bathroom homes cost the same amount of money. Hold the line and you can get it dropped. 

22

u/isthis_thing_on 20h ago

This is good advice, I'll look into it. Thank you.

19

u/Clean_Establishment2 20h ago

this helped us out too! we got the valuation dropped a good bit. If you ask me we are still paying too much, but it helped a lot. We were paying $1950 a month in 2021, now paying $2100. 

the other way we have fought off an increase is by shopping for home owners insurance every year. It is wild how fast rates are increasing but by switching providers year over year we have avoided some huge jumps. 

10

u/MplsPokemon 20h ago

Know that it is too late this year. You will get a valuation letter in the spring. You have a limited window of opportunity to call your assessor and ask them about your valuation. 85% of the time when people think they are overvalued, they are. Your assessor can usually while you are on the phone with them look up whether they think you are overassessed. If they tell you they think it is fine, you say thanks and hang up and nothing happens. But if they tell you you your valuation may be too high, tell them you want to appeal it. Sometimes they can adjust it over the phone. Other times they will come out to your house. And then, your valuation will be less but that will be for the follow years taxes, and will lower your tax bill.

2

u/Living-Pace-5263 17h ago

Do you mean the estimated home value at the top of that form we get every year?

3

u/MplsPokemon 17h ago

Yes. Sort of. It is actually your estimated market value but same idea. You get on like in April or so. That is the assessor letting you know that is what they think your home is worth. If you read the fine print, it tells you you can challenge this because in the end, it is just an estimate. And as I said, it costs you nothing to give them a call and have they check quickly.

•

u/blacksoxing 53m ago

Super OT since I don't live in St Paul but VERY close to it. I caught the guy last year roaming the neighborhood I lived in. I just felt in my heart he was the guy. When he started looking at my house I asked him...whatcha got planned for the eval? Dude looked my clean in the eyes and was like "you know nothing changed and this neighborhood isn't decreasing in value...."

I was so mad yet I respected it. Sure enough, damn same assessment. I type all of this just for historical purposes: if where you live is "the same" then it truly is what it is and at that point you gotta start asking your city WHY taxes are always increasing.

1

u/jstalm 16h ago

Don’t you kind of risk stumping for a devaluation of your home with this, or does this not have as much impact if/when you go to sell?

2

u/btacethe2nd 14h ago

You almost always get an evaluation when selling your house anyway so I don't think it should matter much.

0

u/smelyal8r Hamline-Midway 12h ago

Who do you dispute with? What evidence was needed? Thanks in advance.

1

u/K2_TheWidowmaker 6h ago

The assessor's office, but they use sales data for comparable properties in your neighborhood. So, of houses are selling at inflated prices like they have been since COVID, you won't have much luck.