I think they use a warehouse full of monkeys to asses properties around here. My parents' house, which they just got a buyer for yesterday, had a fun tax assessment recently. Basically, last year the assessment gave them a certain value for their house. First of all, this assessment didn't include the pool that was put in 20 years ago, or an entire additional bedroom and bathroom.

But here's the fun part. Last year, they assessed that the property was about 2/3 the total value, and the house was 1/3. This year the property lost a couple thousand in value, but now they'd assessed that the property was worth 1/3 of the total, and the house was 2/3.

WTF?

Apparently this was the case for everyone in town, and possibly the county.

It seems enough people thought this was stupid (especially since anyone who lives in this area knows that the land is far more valuable than any house you can put on top of it), and a couple months later they sent out new appraisals reversing the values once more.