Mike Ricard's Assessment

This page discusses the Guilderland NY property tax assessment of Michael Ricard, an incumbent on the Town Board. In short, Ricard has a 2500 square foot house with a brand new inground pool (installed in 2004) and a large steel accessory building (installed in 2001 or 2002), all on 12 acres, and he's assessed at $196,300. The zoning application for the pool indicates a cost of $30K. The application for the steel building says it cost $40K. Land in Guilderland generally sells for $10K to $40K per acre. Assuming the low end at $10K/acre, that means a land value of $120K. So between the land, the pool, and the steel building, that's $190K. This leaves $6K for the house and its garage. Put another way, Ricard bought the house for $147K (County Clerk records show this) in the late 1990s. He invested $70K in the pool and the steel building, for a total of $217K, and that's before appreciation. In the 2005 revaluation, many homeowners saw their assessments double or more due to appreciation since the 1999 assessment. See the pictures and text below for more information.

The Ricard property is assessed at $196,300. The house, shown on the right, has 2500 square feet of living space. This works out to under $80 per square foot. The typical home in Guilderland is assessed at somewhere between $110 and $120 per square foot. The photo shows a substantial front porch and what looks like some usable third floor space, which may not be included in the 2500 square foot total.
This satellite photo gives some sense of the size of Mike Ricard's property. The typical home in Guilderland has somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 an acre of land. Many large homes here in expensive developments have an acre. Ricard's property has 12 acres. The land alone may be worth $200,000. In this image you can see the main structures, including the main house (near the road), the shed (immediately behind the house) and a large accessory building, set back, that is larger than the house.
Here's a closer shot of the satellite image, focusing on the structures. Again, the house is near the street. Just behind the house is the shed, with what looks like a white roof. In the upper right part of the picture is the large accessory building, which is significantly larger than the house. What you can't see here is the new inground pool, which was added since these satellite photos were taken. The pool, and the fence around it, sit in the lower left portion of the part of the property shown here. It is very close to what look like property lines and may violate town setback requirements.
You can see a substantial fence in the middle of this picture. The pool is behind it. To the far right is the main house. In the background you can see the upper part of the shed sticking up. The shed is two stories tall, and is much larger than a typical shed.
Tough with a cell phone camera to get a decent look, but this is an attempt to get more of the property in one shot. On the right you can see the large accessory building. On the far left is the main house, mostly obscured by a tree. Just to the right of that you can see the "small" shed.
This photo shows the large accessory building. According to zoning records, the indoor area is 1500 sq.ft., and the porch has another 600 sq.ft.

So, in short, Mike Ricard has a 2500 square foot house with a brand new inground pool
and two large accessory buildings, all on 12 acres, and he's assessed at under $200,000.

What's your house assessed at and what do you have? You can check the town's own
listing for all residential properties in this pdf file.

There are two candidates for change in the Guilderland Town Board.
Please go to our Guilderland NY home page to find out more.