As we wrote in yesterday’s Brief, as well as in two from 2014 (here and here), the municipality of Mt. Lebanon was one of the main players in the appeal by taxing body activity in Allegheny County.  It was in the second piece in 2014 that we examined some of the shortcomings of the criteria as applied to sales between 2006 and 2013.

But with all appeal criteria designed by taxing bodies that set either a dollar amount or percentage based gap between sales price or market value and the assessment on the books there will be properties that either fall within or just outside the cutoff range.  Consider that the municipal commission recently extended its appeals to “all transactions that have occurred in Mt. Lebanon in the past”.  From a follow up news article, the municipality will examine ” properties with a difference of $100,000 or more between the Federal Housing Administration comparable and the assessed value...”.  On this standard the municipality identified 26 properties.  Using just the dollar value probably helps to avoid some of the outcomes that came with a dollar gap and and percentage difference, but likely much of the reliability depends on the FHA comparable and how that is designed.