For Immediate Release: 3/16/2012 9:58 am
Worcester, MA (March 16, 2012) - The City Assessor has completed the revaluation of all single family, two- and three- family dwellings, residential condominium units, and residential land for FY2012. These are proposed values pending preliminary certification by the Department of Revenue. The proposed values, as well as the data elements from which the valuation was derived, shall be mailed to each property owner by the City Assessor in the form of a Parcel Information Data Sheet.
Anyone wishing to discuss their proposed valuations with the Assessor’s Division are urged to please call the City of Worcester’s Customer Service Center at (508) 929-1300, Monday through Friday 7:30 AM until 5:00 PM.
Tax bills based on the new values are expected to be issued on or about May 1, 2012, and will be due 30 days thereafter. Abatement applications can be filed within 30 days from the mailing of the tax bills. Home owners exemptions, including tax deferrals must be filed within 90 days from the mailing of the tax bills.
The valuation date for the FY2012 valuation is January 1, 2011, as required by law. Changes in market condition or physical changes to the property subsequent to January 1, 2011 will not be reflected in the proposed FY12 valuation.
The City Assessor relied on arms length sales from 2010 to determine the FY12 assessments. Sales prices during that period were adjusted to reflect market conditions as of January 1, 2011. For single family, two- and three-family dwellings and residential condominium units, the assessor developed a mass appraisal market model that uses a formula to apply both additive and multiplicative factors that capture market relationships between property characteristics. For example, in the one-, two- and three-family model, the average value per foot of land is modified by lot size and location influences, such as neighborhood, then added to a building value to estimate the total value of a property. Similarly the average selling price per square foot for a particular house design can be modified by the quality of the construction, the number of bathrooms or the age of the structure, within the building model. The desired result is that similar properties in similar locations have similar values based on selling prices as of January 1, 2011.
