Fred wrote:

I understand what you're saying however the way it's working in my area
(Pgh, PA), I am to deduct the afore mentioned items from the sale price.
The local municipality is trying to nail me on sale price rather than by
assessment. I can argue that I paid for these items as part of the sale
price of the house. At the same time these items are truly not considered
part of the property "value". So the idea is that once I deduct these things
as well as some necessary repairs needed I should get a valuation lower than
my sale price - As you guessed around $15,000, more like $20K though. There
are some other things in the mix like other local home sales, etc.

I can tell you that trying to go back in time to figure out appliance prices
is tough.


How old are the appliances in question? Unless it's a fairly unusual
house I'd be surprised if you could manage to get $5k out of the lot and
when hit by the marginal rate you're probably not talking about any
significant amount net...