Following the COVID pandemic real estate sales soared, creating a competitive market and driving up home costs.
“In July 2020 right after COVID hit, it was like somebody flipped a switch on,” said Kevin Ford, revaluation coordinator during the Aug. 9 Macon County Board of Commissioners meeting.
Ford was working on a reappraisal in Jackson County when the sales started increasing during COVID. “We saw it taking off and we tried to chase it and we couldn’t keep up.”
Ford said that although property values went down constantly between 2007 and 2011, values have rebounded.
According to information presented during the meeting, as of Aug. 1 there has been an increase of 1,471 taxable properties since 2019. In 2019 there were 42,542 taxable parcels in the county with a taxable value of $7,969,346,695. As of Aug. 1, there were 44,013 taxable parcels with a taxable value of $12,029,130,971.
In 2021 there were 1,853 qualified sales in the county. As of Aug. 1, there had been 815 qualified sales in 2022.
Tax Administrator Abby Braswell said those numbers will continue to change and are not the final numbers that will be used for the 2023 reappraisal now underway. “Each qualified sale will be taken into consideration when we value taxpayers’ properties and each sale will affect the numbers,” she said.
She also clarified that the taxable value listed is not what the county would collect in property taxes. Currently property taxes are assessed at 40 cents per $100 of value. At the current rate, someone would pay about $800 in property taxes on a $200,000 home.
When people hear there is a reappraisal underway, many people automatically begin to worry about their property taxes increasing.
“That’s not necessarily true,” said Tommy Allen, a tax appraiser for the county. The reappraisal process is not necessarily designed to increase the amount the county collects in property taxes. It is meant to be “revenue neutral,” meaning the millage rate will be adjusted according to the final taxable value to meet the county’s budget needs.
Ultimately the amount owed in taxes each year is determined by the tax rate set by the County Commissioners during the annual budget process.
Allen said some people’s taxes will go up after reappraisal because they have made improvements to their property since the last appraisal or since the last site visit from someone in the tax office. “This is a good time to make sure we have everything correct,” he said. For instance, if you’ve added on to your home or built a deck or an outbuilding, all those things add value to your home and are taxable.
“We continue to work daily on reappraisal, and it is also important for us to continue to visit properties so that we have the accurate information for each property,” Braswell said. “We will be sending out reappraisal letters in late January to every taxpayer so that they will be aware of the new assessment. Those assessments will not be final until January (2023).”
Braswell came before the Board of Commissioners to present the Schedule of Values, Standards and Rules for the 2023 reappraisal. There are two schedules – one for personal and real property and one for property identified for agriculture, horticulture or forestry use.
The state requires that counties conduct a general reappraisal at least once every eight years. Macon County’s last reappraisal was in 2019.
Public hearing
The Schedule of Values outlines the base rates and ranges for different types of properties and offers appraisers guidelines when reviewing properties. The county will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. on Sept. 13 to give people an opportunity to ask questions about the Schedule of Values. A copy of the values will be available in the tax office for inspection and on the county website, maconnc.org.
The Board of Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the Schedule of Values at the Oct. 11 meeting. Braswell said the schedule must be approved before Jan. 1, 2023. Once the schedule is approved it will be in place until the next reappraisal.
Property appraisals
As part of the reappraisal process, the state requires that “all property, real and personal, shall as far as practicable be appraised or valued at its true value in money.”
The state interprets “true value” as meaning market value or the price estimated in terms of money at which the property would change hands between a buyer and seller. In other words, if you were to sell your house, how much you could expect to get for it at market value. Market value is not the same as market price, which is the price the property actually sells for.
When assessing the value of a property, an appraiser may use one or a combination of the following methods: market, cost and income.
The market approach is the most commonly used and involves comparing the characteristics of a property to others that have recently sold, with adjustments made to account for differences between the properties. Since no two parcels of land are exactly alike, adjustments may be made for differences such as time of sale, location and physical characteristics.
Using the cost approach, an appraiser would determine the cost to build the structure new and then make an allowance for depreciation based on the condition of the existing improvements.
The income approach is used when the property was bought for its potential to produce income. In this instance, the appraiser estimates the value of an income-producing property by converting anticipated benefits (income and rent) that arise from owning the property.