Assessed value

What it means

Counties assess property for tax purposes on their own schedule and their own method. The result can sit well below a market price, and in some places well above it.

It is not an appraisal, not a market value and not a date-of-death value.

Why it matters

Some rules are written against the assessed figure rather than the market one, and that changes who qualifies. New Mexico's route for transferring a primary residence to a surviving spouse without probate is capped at the assessed value for property tax purposes.

Using the wrong figure on an affidavit is a false statement even when the mistake is honest.

When you are likely to meet it

• On a property tax bill or a county assessor's website.
• Where a statute names the assessed value rather than the fair market value.

How this varies by state

Assessment methods and cycles are set locally.

Related terms

• AppraisalA professional opinion of what something was worth on a particular date — usually the date of death.
• Community development districtA local government unit that funds a community's infrastructure and bills residents for it, separately from the association.
• Date-of-death valueWhat something was worth on the day the person died. It is the number the estate, and often the tax, is measured by.
• Fair market valueWhat a willing buyer would pay a willing seller, neither under pressure and both knowing the facts.
• Homestead exemptionA protection for the family home — from creditors, from being sold to pay debts, or as a right for the surviving spouse to keep living there.
• Real propertyLand and what is permanently attached to it — a house, a barn, a fixed structure. Everything else a person owns is personal property.
• Step-up in basisThe tax rule that resets an inherited asset's value to what it was worth on the date of death.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• How your home passes