I just protested my valuation last year, and will be doing so again this year.
Did you also receive a notice of how much the property was assessed for the last time? If it was assessed for what you paid, then that is a huge jump.
In your case, I would protest, based off the first one:
1.a.(1)(b). That said property is assessed for more than the value authorized by law (Section 441.21, Code of Iowa)
that the amount of said over-assessment is.... and fill in the amount over what you paid for the property in February. If you look up the code 441.21, it does say:
The actual value of all property subject to assessment and
taxation shall be the fair and reasonable market value of such
property except as otherwise provided in this section. "Market
value" is defined as the fair and reasonable exchange in the year
in which the property is listed and valued between a willing buyer
and a willing seller, neither being under any compulsion to buy or
sell and each being familiar with all the facts relating to the
particular property. Sale prices of the property or comparable
property in normal transactions reflecting market value, and the
probable availability or unavailability of persons interested in
purchasing the property, shall be taken into consideration in
arriving at its market value. In arriving at market value, sale
prices of property in abnormal transactions not reflecting market
value shall not be taken into account, or shall be adjusted to
eliminate the effect of factors which distort market value, including
but not limited to sales to immediate family of the seller,
foreclosure or other forced sales, contract sales, discounted
purchase transactions or purchase of adjoining land or other land to
be operated as a unit.
You do have a bit of a bargaining chip in that you just bought your house, so they have to consider the purchase price in their valuations, but I'm not sure how much weight they'd give towards that if you're in a super hot area. So that would be something to ask about.
I personally would request an oral hearing, and come in with the property sales info that just happened this year, but you might be okay just filling out the protest and attaching a form showing you purchased the property in February 2014 for XX amount, and that's what they should be basing the fair market value on... seems like it should be pretty cut and dried, but I'm always looking for ways to complicate things. ;) (and not an expert by any means, so hopefully you'll get some smarter replies)
Taking photos of things that need work or repair in your house and then comparing them to houses recently sold pushed my assessor to giving me actually better than I had asked for. You can't really argue with photographic proof. This is the one time having a bunch of repairs and looking bad actually pays off! ;)
In my assessment, they provide the houses/recent sales of what they're basing my evaluation on. I can look up the houses and pull the beautiful realtor photos from the site, and show how they have fancy this, or brand new that, and I have a poor, pitiful dump. (okay, not really, but I've not put in the stuff you would to actually sell a house, and there's lots of stuff that is original to the house that needs updating).