The new answer is “No”.  Appraisal districts in recent years have discounted foreclosure sale prices as being “not arms length”.

Reality has been forced upon the appraisal districtby revisions in the Property Tax Code effective in 2010.

Now the Code provides that “in determining the value of a residential homestead the chief appraiser may not exclude from consideration the value of of other residential property in the same neighborhood because

• it was sold at foreclosure within three years of the preceding tax year, or
• the market value has declined because of the declining economy.”

Thus, lower values based on foreclosure can no longer be denied or discounted.  Their value — can become dramatic in 2010.

At Property Tax Protest we intend to incorporate a macro economic study with each case we present to the Appraisal Review Board.  Though it may ajppear superfluous — after all, the Board members read the press also — we espect that including such a study in the procedure will have an effect given the Code’s determination that such matters matter.