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Scott, I live in a well run town and I'm also involved in town government. I attend all the town meetings regarding budgets, etc... If you think the assessor doesn't set values based on what your town needs, you're mistaken.
My neighbor has an acre of land, but only about 1/3 of it is useable. When the house was built 5 years ago, they paid taxes on the useable land and the dwelling. Two years ago, their tax rate went way up. When the questioned it, they were told that they were now being taxed on the entire acre of "useable" land. They told the town to come down and take a look and tell them what that 2/3's of an acre could be used for. The town came down and saw a drainage pond with a sign saying that nothing was to be built or modified beyond that point. The town apologized and adjusted their taxes back. Last year, the value of their home all of a sudden increased while my house and the one on the other side of their stayed the same. Does that sound normal to you?
I don't think that you're really that naive to believe that towns don't manipulate property values in a bad economy when they know that they wouldn't be able to get away with raising the tax rate. In a bad real estate market, there's no way that a person should expect their property to increase in value without making improvements to it.
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