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County report says most property values lowered on appeal

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Staff

Some property owners still dissatisfied

BY SUSAN DICKSON
Staff Writer

Orange County received a record number of property revaluation appeals in 2009, and in most cases the appeals paid off, according to the 2009 Orange County Revaluation Report released by the county last week.

The county received 5,026 informal appeals for property values, with 3,073 adjusted — more than 60 percent. However, some property owners felt the reduced property values were still unreasonably high.

Marc Pons, owner of Chapel Hill Tire, saw an 84 percent and a 49 percent increase for his two Franklin Street locations during last year’s revaluation. He filed an appeal with the county and the assessed value was then lowered “a tiny bit.”

“There’s still dissatisfaction and there’s still a major increase,” he said, adding that he didn’t know the specific amount the assessed value was reduced, but that it was a “token reduction.”

Pona chose not to file additional appeals because of the amount of time and money the process requires. He hired an appraiser to help him with the initial appeal and provided the county with information regarding his and surrounding properties. Pons suspects that a nearby parking lot purchased at peak prices by former Courtyard owner Spencer Young may have driven up the assessed value of his properties.

“It’s hard to believe that in the worst recession in however many years that the county would still be hitting us that hard,” he said.

Hundreds of county residents formed the Orange County Tax Revolt last year in protest of the county’s assessed property values, claiming the values were inaccurate and calling on the Orange County Board of Commissioners to repeal the revaluation. Overall, the average property value increased 22 percent in the 2009 revaluation.

However, according to an analysis of the 1,326 property sales in the county last year, the average assessed value was 98.8 percent of the sale price, indicating that properties sold for slightly more than the tax value assessed by the county.

By comparison, data from the 1,201 Multiple Listing Service sales showed that properties sold for slightly less than the tax value assessed by the county, with the average assessed value 100.4 percent of the sale price.

“From our standpoint, the good news was our sales ratios in comparison to the values set. We had a good percent ratio,” Orange County tax assessor Jo Roberson said. “The bad news is over a year out from a normal revaluation … we should be sitting at 95 percent.”

Roberson said in a year with strong growth and sales, the ratio of assessed value to sale price would be about 95 to 96 percent.

However, she added, the percentage indicated that overall, sales prices were not declining, which is good news, given the economic climate.

“The value is holding its own — it’s just not growing,” she said.

During the appeals process, appellants came forward with more information than they had in previous years, Roberson said.

“They came forward with good facts — not just ‘it’s not right,’ not just ‘it’s too high,’” she said. The county had better tools available to residents than in previous years, such as a GIS system with assessed property values, which enabled property owners to collect more information on their own before appealing to the county, according to Roberson.

Informal appeals were accepted and reviewed from December 2008 until March 2009, and appellants were notified of the results in April 2009. Property owners could then choose to appeal further to the Board of Equalization and Review.

During the formal hearing process, the county received 1,656 formal appeals, with 992 property values adjusted. Of the property values adjusted upon formal appeal, 99 percent of those moved downward in appraised value.

After receiving results from the Board of Equalization and Review, appellants could appeal further to the North Carolina Property Tax Commission. Orange County has 182 properties still under appeal with the commission.

Roberson said property owners have the right to appeal the assessed values every year — not just during revaluation years — and encouraged those who wanted to appeal to exercise that right.

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