i keep hearing homeowners mention the word rateable.." they are going to raise my rateable" ect... what the heck does that mean?
The term 'rateable' refers to property tax. Property tax is caculated by applying the local property tax rate to the assessed value of the property. When someone says that my 'rateable' is going up they mean their property tax is going up...either because the property assessment is rising or the tax rate is rising.
I just got my real estate taxes lowered. When filed the paper work, they let me put what I think my house is worth and they let me pull the comps, haha! Got my taxes lowered almost 40%! Just in time too because houses are starting to go up in value now that all those hedge funds have been on a buying spree, buying up all the inventory in bulk.
In my Puget Sound area, property tax "rate" is called the milage rate. (1mil = $1,000 of tax assessed value.) If the milage rate is $14 ($ 14 per mil) and the property is tax assessed at $ 100,000, then the tax is $ 1400 ($14 x 100). 14 = milage rate 100 mils (or 100 thousands) of tax assessed VALUE $1400 = property tax As county government, assessed values declined each of the last 5 years, the milage rate increased so the county had roughly steady revenues year after year.
Rateable value is deside on your property. Rateable value presents market rental value of a business. All business owner pay this Rateable value and it's government rule.
Common Riddler, you started out saying it was brought to your attention by 'homeowners.' It does not mean that they are using the word correctly; they are not...the pricise word as indicated by another poster above is 'mill rate' and the concept combines both the 'mill rate' and the 'assessed value.' This concept applies to all property tax, both residential and commercial. In commercial the assessed valuation is more driven by the income approach than it is by market comparables as relied on in residential appraisal. This is basic stuff. You could easily go to google and find definitions in the financial glossery or even in wickpedia.