Buyer’s Story Sheds Light on Property Tax Problems in Palm Beach County
Meet Jo Anne Casen.
She’s 52, a single mother, a champion bridge player, and for the last five years a public school teacher in Palm Beach County.
She bought a house for $299,000. Three bedrooms, two baths, 1,464 square feet. Last year, this house was assessed at $117,000. But with the sale this year, the county reassessed the place at $264,000. And her homestead status, which protected her from sharp tax hikes on her old property, no longer applied.
The property taxes immediately vaulted from $1,999 to $5,100, or”2 1/2 paychecks,” Casen said.
The uptick has forced her to take a second job: Almost 30 hours a week, she’s a cashier at a discount gas station in Royal Palm Beach. She runs credit cards, makes change, sells cigarettes. For $7 an hour.
“It’s not bad,” she insists. “I like working. I tell my students, `Never look down on any job.’”
Florida mortgage applicants face property tax problems
We wish I could say Casen’s situation was unique. Unfortunately, it’s not. Home buyers and potential Florida mortgage loan applicants are routinely being pole-axed with whopping property tax increases, thanks to the record runup in real estate prices that only recently came to a halt. Thousands more residents are reluctant to move to new homes, fearing they’ll receive just the kind of property tax jolt that Casen received.
“It’s the biggest issue in the state,” says County Clerk Sharon Bock.
Casen is in the same position as a lot of teachers - along with police officers, firefighters and other white- and blue-collar working people - getting squeezed by high home prices, high taxes, high insurance costs.
The crisis is so widespread that the School District on Saturday hosted a “Workforce Housing Expo” at a local high school, linking employees with builders, developers and lenders in attempt to find that magic target: properties “priced at $375,000 or less.”
Naturally, Casen tried to protest her new home’s high assessment.
She wrote to the county Clerk’s Office, asking the Value Adjustment Board to consider reducing her appraisal.
She included copies of her tax returns and a paycheck. She included a statement from her insurance company showing that her house could be replaced for $161,000; that’s a cool $100,000 less than the appraised price. She included printouts showing that her appraisal was much larger than that of comparable houses in her development, Fairway Cove.
A strong case, possibly.
But she never got the chance to make it. The Clerk’s Office rejected her petition, saying it was (A) too late, and (B) lacking a $15 filing fee.
The deadline was Sept. 15. Casen, however, has a U.S. Postal Service receipt indicating that her petition was delivered on Sept. 14. As for the $15, Casen says it was an oversight. She never saw the instruction.
“I feel terrible about this,” said Bock, when the situation was explained to her. But because of an unprecedented crush of petitions this year - 4,000 just during the week of the deadline - it was impossible to contact people who had deficiencies in their applications and to urge them to, say, run over with a quick $15.
Housing problems for lower-income owners
County officials are paying a lot of lip service to feeling the plight of teachers and other working people. But people still keep getting hammered when all they want is a simple Florida home mortgage and a comfortable residence.
Casen vows to keep plugging along, even if her tax bill stays the same. She isn’t going to return to higher paying private-sector work.
She isn’t going to move to Georgia or some other state that rewards teachers better.
“If I have to,” she says, “I’ll take a third job.”
