If you or one of the owners of your home were born in 1944 or earlier and the home is occupied as the primary residence you are entitled to exemptions that will reduce your taxable assessment.  You don’t have to wait until both owners are 65.

The Annual Homestead Exemption reduces the taxable assessment by $6,000. The Elderly Homestead Exemption reduces the taxable assessment by $4,000. The Senior Assessment Freeze actually freezes the assessment as long as the owner qualifies per the financial and ownership requirements within the exemption.

There are other programs available such as the Senior Citizen Real Estate Tax Deferral and the Circuit Breaker that provide for reductions in real estate taxes payable.

If you were born in 1945 make sure to apply for your Senior Exemptions during 2010, even early in the year.  You don’t have to wait until your actual birthday to apply. 

If you were born in 1946 you are the first year of the ‘Baby Boomers’ and won’t qualify for the Senior exemptions until 2011.

Be sure to check the Property Search page; the link is listed in the left-hand column. 

This year programming changes were made that show the type of sale, whether it was a short sale, foreclosure or one of the other many types of sales possible.  Next to the type of sale is a lower-case ‘i’ that if you hover your cursor over it, a brief description of the sales types will appear.

Also included in this change, in the lower right corner, the numbers for additional parcels for a multi-parcel sale are now listed.