And the higher a home's price, the greater its chances of being underappraised. Testa said he doesn't want to overcharge anyone, but there is only so much money his office can spend to re-evaluate property. I'm not sure that's a wise expenditure of taxpayers' money. The county uses statistical methods that are time-proven, and pouring money into getting greater accuracy might not even solve the problem, Testa said. I wouldn't even necessarily say that.
Appraisers generally compare sales of similar properties to arrive at a house's value.
The varying conditions of houses in lower-income neighborhoods make this difficult. And simply declaring it to be difficult doesn't solve the problem, he said. It should be possible to do better than they are,'' he said. Their data must have shown overvalue and undervalue in the review process. In fact, Testa's office has known about the problem but believes it has more to do with unsophisticated buyers paying the wrong amounts for low-income homes than appraisers setting wrong values, said Stan Dixon, an administrator in the auditor's Real Estate Division.