Monday, December 03, 2007
Have you been shocked by your new property tax value? Are you wondering how the Durham County tax office arrived at that tax value? Are you wondering if you could sell your home for that amount?If so, you are not alone.I have had a lot of phone calls and emails from people who are very surprised by their new tax value.
If you have questions about your new tax value in Durham, please give me a call.I will evaluate the numbers and explain what to do if the tax value should be challenged.By way of explanation, however:
Each county in North Carolina is required to revalue property at least every eight years.Durham had not revised its property values since 2001.Other areas across the country reassess tax values each time a home is sold. With this type of system, tax values are more reflective of the true market value. With the approach used in North Carolina, tax values typically are than the true market value.In the year that the tax value adjusts, tax values may be close to or less than the market value for the home.It is tax rates that adjust on an annual basis.In the first year of a tax value adjustment, tax rates go down and year-after-year, as the tax value stays the same, tax rates will go up slightly depending on the County and City’s budgetary needs.In the first year of the adjustment, the goal is keep your tax bill at or about the same as the previous year.
The county’s current tax rate is 83.4 cents per $100 of assessed value. With the new property values, next year’s tax rate would need to be in the range of 69.28 cents per $100 to remain revenue neutral.We know there will be some increase, but we won’t know for sure until next June exactly what the new tax rate will be.
On my next Blog I will give you some tips on how to fight the new tax value.
All the best, Jodi