Most property values up in recent revaluation notices sent to owners

Revaluation of property notices were mailed out on Oct. 23, bringing shocks to some local property owners as values increased sharply on many local homes, tracts of land and other structures.

Tax Administrator Mary Walker said revaluation experts with Pearson Appraisals of Richmond, Va. have been looking at property values here for the past year and a half. "Reval actually started here in February of 2005," she said. "The state mandates that we do a revaluation at least every eight years. The last one was done in 1999." Since revaluation is a state mandate, it must be carried out here at least every eight years, but some counties revaluate property more often.

Walker said the values distributed on the new property record cards are designed to include information on the neighborhood in which the property in question is located. "The county is divided into neighborhoods and the revaluators look at the property sales in the neighborhood when assigning a new value to the property," said Walker. "What the revaluation is trying to predict is what the property would sell for between a willing buyer and a willing seller."

Getting properties closer to their actual market value is the purpose of the exercise. "We're trying to make it more equitable for everybody," she said.

Although most property has increased in value, some has actually decreased since the last revaluation in 1999. "It really New ROOM - Students in Lisa Hash's kindergarten class file into their new room for the first time in the recently opened addition to Sparta School.

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