Wake County has completed its every-eight-year countywide tax value reappraisal of all 360,000 property parcels in the county, and the results are a mixed bag of how property values have recovered – or not recovered – since the Great Recession.
Overall, property values for both commercial and residential land and buildings in Wake County are up 5 percent since the county’s last reappraisal that became effective Jan. 1, 2008, which was only months before the recession started impacting property values negatively nationwide.
Residential property values were essentially flat compared to the 2008 review, says Wake County Revenue Director Marcus Kinrade, primarily due to the nearly four years of lost growth in value due to the recession. “We started seeing values fall around July 2008,” Kinrade says, “and we really didn’t see them start going back up again until mid-2012.”
Commercial property values are up 19 percent, primarily due to growth in the apartment and hotel property sectors in Wake County.
The hardest-hit sector of the county’s housing industry was for residential homes valued at $750,000 and above. Residential properties in those categories, which number around 6,900 parcels, saw an average value decrease of 5 percent, according to a reappraisal report from the Wake County Revenue Department.
Homes valued up to $400,000, which accounts for about 84 percent of the county’s residential properties, were shielded from the hardest hits. Homes valued at less than $200,000 increased in value on average 1.5 percent. Homes valued between $200,000 and $400,000 increased by an average of 1.3 percent.
Homes priced from $400,000 to $750,000 lost an average 2.2 percent in value between the 2008 and the 2016 property tax revaluations.
By municipality, residential properties in Apex increased in value an average 7 percent. Home values in Cary increased an average 4 percent, and homes in Holly Springs and Morrisville both increased 2 percent.
However, all other areas of the county saw flat or negative growth in average residential property value between the county’s 2008 and 2016 revaluations.
- In Raleigh and Fuquay-Varina, home-value growth was flat at zero percent.
- In Garner and Rolesville, home values were down 2 percent.
- In Knightdale and the unincorporated areas of the county, home values were down 4 percent.
- In Wake Forest, home values were down 5 percent.
- In Wendell and Zebulon, home values were down 6 percent.
But whether or not a property owner will see an increase or decrease in their annual property tax bill following the reappraisal, Kinrade says, won’t be determined until after the fiscal year 2017 tax rates are set by the Wake County Board of Commissioners.
Kinrade says that property owners wishing to contest the county’s new appraised value of their property will be able to contact the Wake County Revenue Department to request an adjustment.
If that request is denied, property owners can file a formal appeal with the Wake County Board of Equalization and Review, which meets in April and will be accepting adjustment requests through mid-May 2016.
Reappraisal notices will be mailed to Wake County property owners Dec. 7. Property tax bills will be mailed in July 2016.
Written by: Amanda Hoyle – Triangle Business Journal
To Read the Original Article: Will your Wake Co. property taxes go up or down? Reappraisal notices go out Dec. 7