The county assessed our home value higher than I thought it would

[OnionPatch]

They have the value as $65k higher than our "Zestimate" at Zillow. I don't trust the county all that much so I'm wondering who is more accurate. But then I also wonder about Zillow. If they're using homes to the south of us as comparables, they will be off. It's a totally different kind of neighborhood but hard to tell from aerial photos.

I live in Riverside County in California. They can't raise our property tax, or I would figure that was the county's motive for assessing our house as high as possible. Could they be accurate? If so, it would make me very, very happy. Does anyone know much about how a typical county assesses property value?

[question everything]

1. Why not call the county assessor and ask?

I think that all of them provide channels to ask and to contest. Especially these days.

There is a Catch-22 since the Zestimate often is based on.... county assessment if not enough sales took place.

[glinda]

2. They raised our taxes because they also based the value of our home on an area a mile away.

Which is like... soooo wrong!
I called the Assessor and what they can offer is to have someone come out and look at your home. I do not know if they actually will change your assessment but it is worth a try to show them the difference.