Majority of Property Owners Winning Revaluation Appeals

Raleigh, N.C. — Wake County property owners who appealed the new values placed on their homes, land and businesses last year are winning their cases more often than not, officials said Tuesday.

County officials have heard 12,184 of the 28,867 appeals filed by the Jan. 1 deadline, and values in 7,291 of the cases heard so far have resulted in adjustments, said Ken McArtor, Wake County's appraisal manager.

Most of the adjustments have resulted in lower property valuations, although a few appeals backfired for the property owners and ended in even higher valuations, he said.

The adjustments have cut about $500 million from the overall assessed value of the properties involved in the appeals so far, McArtor said.

The appeals process followed the county's first property revaluation in eight years. Average property values jumped 43 percent from 2000 levels, with higher increases seen inside the Interstate 440 Beltline and several suburbs.

The Wake County Board of Commissioners voted last month to set a target tax rate of 53 cents per $100 of assessed value for the fiscal 2009 budget so the county wouldn't receive a windfall from the higher property values.

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"I was also just thinking back to when experts at one time said that we spend our first 5 months of every year paying income taxes"

And that will change with Obama as president. Count on it. We'll be working well over 6 months to pay for his tax increases so he can dole out health benefits, free college, etc., in exchange for votes from the poor.

TruthBKnown Returns
February 21, 2008 9:43 a.m.

Of course tax values are not going to drop, when it come to realestate....it only goes up. I was also just thinking back to when experts at one time said that we spend our first 5 months of every year paying income taxes, if we were to figure in all of our taxes, I believe that we will find that we spend the greater amount of 8 months just to pay our all the taxes we owe. Now of course when it comes to property taxes and such it is going to depend on the evualation and what your home is worth, along with your cars and such.

common_sense_plz
February 21, 2008 8:10 a.m.

childofNC, the members of the GA say that when they pass the laws, those that EARN less that $x will be able to get and exemption, BUT the local revenue departments not only count EARNED income, but also, unearned income and transfer payments. The result is that you have to be too poor to own a house to get the exemption!

wa4mjf
February 20, 2008 4:31 p.m.

That stinks, too. Either way, something stinks!

TruthBKnown Returns
February 20, 2008 4:12 p.m.

"You mean nobody's tax value dropped during the revaluations? Something smells really bad here."

I am sure some probably did. I was speaking more to the issue of them trying to get the assessments done before the housing prices dropped like it was some king of conspiracy to bring in more taxes.

They set the tax rate based on the total assessments. If they did the assessments this year, they would probably just have a higher rate. Some people with high end homes might be better off, but those of us in the middle to lower end might have ended up with even bigger bills.

baracus
February 20, 2008 4:09 p.m.