What are the differences between sales prices, appraisals, and assessments?
Sale price is the actual price a buyer pays for a particular property. An appraisal is a detailed single property valuation, and may be obtained any time throughout the year. Appraisals can have a variety of purposes, e.g. mortgage loan, sale, home equity loan, and estate valuations. An assessment is a mass appraisal of property as of January 1 each year for tax purposes. Assessments are based on large numbers of sales that are analyzed to determine values for large groups of similar properties.