Why Your Property Tax Went Up - It Isn't Your Assessment

Three houses on the same street, same town, same year. All three were reassessed higher. One of them paid LESS tax than the year before. Not a smaller increase - less. Nobody appealed anything and no loophole was used. It is just how the arithmetic works, and almost nobody has ever been shown it. CHAPTERS 0:00 Three houses, one paid less 0:45 What each of them actually paid 1:43 The town decides the total first 2:21 The rate is worked out last 2:52 Watch the rate fall by itself 3:26 Why one bill went down 3:55 The sentence to remember 4:17 Why the notice feels like a bill 4:45 The number that actually decides it 5:13 Reason one: you rose faster than average 5:35 Reason two: the total itself went up 6:04 Reason three: an exemption ended 6:33 Reason four: a new slice 7:03 The three minute check 7:45 What an appeal can and cannot do 8:26 Why this tax works backwards THE NUMBERS, AND WHERE THEY COME FROM Every figure in this video is Washington State Department of Revenue's own published worked example of the 1% levy limit. Three homes, each assessed at $200,000, each paying $200. The next year: $220,000 (+10%), $230,000 (+15%), $240,000 (+20%). District-wide valuations rose 15%. The city levy went from $1,000,000 to $1,010,000, which is the 1% limit. The rate fell from $1.00 to $0.878261 per $1,000 of value. The bills became $193.22, $202.00 and $210.78: -3.39%, +1% and +5.39%. The one percent cap is Washington's. Many states limit how fast the total can grow, the number is different everywhere, and some do not cap it at all. What is the same everywhere is the arithmetic: the total is decided first, and the rate is whatever makes the division come out to it. Source: Washington State Department of Revenue, "Property tax - How the 1% property tax levy limit works." Kitchen Table Economics does one thing at a time: how a policy actually reaches your wallet, with the source named. No affiliate links, no course, no newsletter, no sponsor. Nothing here is legal or tax advice. Assessment rules, exemptions and levy limits vary by state and by district.