[john70t]

The city assessors office first attempted to charge me 60% over my current rate. I called the office and the woman on the phone actually lied to me and said it was illegal for them to base value individually: They had to base the property on neighborhood values(some of which were outrageous).

Made an appointment with the Board of Review and brought in a short-n-sweet letter which went like this:
"Dear Board of review,
About X months ago I purchased X property for the price of X.
The property was listed and found through the nationally-accessable MLS system. The buyer and seller were previously unknownst to each other, as was both realtors. A price was negotiated and the sale occured.
The entire process was an arms-length transaction and reflects fair-market value.
Please change my assesed value to reflect fair-market value as required by law.
Thank you, John "

Next stop was going to be the state board of equalization and then court, but the BoR meeting were extremely pleasant and it went through without a hitch. A couple hundred dollars a month ain't chump change ya'know.

FYI- Before relocating, check with a local assessors office and get millage rates on all the local areas. Suprisingly, the next block over might have the same services but half the taxes.