Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) is asking Palm Beach County to tax Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property at the rate the former president claims it is worth amid his ongoing civil fraud trial in New York, NBC News reports.
Wrote Moskowitz: “Between 2011 and 2021, you value the Mar-a-Lago property between $18 million and $28 million. Mar-a-Lago was listed as worth $490 million in financial documents given to banks. If the property value of Mar-a-Lago is so much higher than it was appraised, will you be amending the property value in line with the Trump family’s belief that the property is worth well over a billion dollars?”
Real estate appraising is an art and a science, but if you just invent a number with no basis in reality, it’s plain old fraud.
Yeah, that’s not reality in today’s market. It may have been more accurate when the market was slower, and prices more stable. But now appraisals are basically “well, here are the comps. Things shift drastically over months, so it’s really just worth what someone will pay.”
Using comparables from even 6 months ago or a few blocks away isn’t going to be accurate today.
When we let people who own many widgets estimate the value of a widget, the price of a widget can just keep going up every 6 months. And then down again at tax time.
It’s a great time to be a widget owner.