During a June 19 presentation, Tax Administrator Leslie Young gave an update on Craven County’s 2023 tax revaluation that led to an average increase of 42.03% in local property valuation.
Though she admitted it had been a “very hard, very contentious revaluation,” Young told the Craven County Board of Commissioners the process was both necessary due to state statutes and well-timed given the current state of the housing market.
During her update to the board, Young attempted to explain “why we did what we did when we did it.”
Young said under NC General Statute 105-286 each county must have a property reappraisal at least once every eight years. She said that although Craven had initially decided to hold another property revaluation four years after the last one in 2016, that plan got pushed to 2023, seven years later, due to Hurricane Florence and then the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I believe we made the right call,” Young said. “We did not position ourselves behind the eight ball waiting until the very last year.”
Answering criticisms that the revaluation was performed during a time when the housing market is unusually hot, Young pointed out that another state statute, 105-283, states that all counties are to have their reappraisal at current market value.
“So to appraise current market value for every reappraisal you look at what is the property worth on January 1 of that revaluation year,” Young explained.
Young said North Carolina is now under a state mandate that states all counties whose population is 75,000 or greater must conduct a reappraisal of real property when the county’s sales assessment ratio is less than 85% or greater than 115%.
Over the first five months of 2023, Craven’s sales ratio dropped 12 points to 86.8%, Young said, bringing the county to within 1.9 percentage points of falling under the state mandate to perform a new revaluation.
“What that 86% represents is that when the property is placed on the open market and it sells for $100,000, that means Craven County Tax Department has that property appraised at $86,000,” Young noted. “That’s how much the market is continuing to increase.”
Young said counties that fall under the new mandate have the option to conduct a countywide revaluation the third year following the year that the county received the notice. However, since Craven only received the notice in June 2022, that option would have pushed the county revaluation until 2025, a year late for the mandated eight-year process the county must abide by under General Statute 105-286.
“We could not receive a countywide revelation in 2025 because that put us outside the eight-year requirement following the year of the county’s last reappraisal…That’s where we fell into why we did it in 2023,” Young explained.
According to Young, seven of the state’s 11 counties that had revaluations in 2022 have already fallen under the 85% sales assessment ratio.
“They are now under a state mandate to conduct a reappraisal in the next three years.” she stated.
Young said the next countywide revaluation is scheduled for 2027. If the local housing market continues along its current trend, Craven County will also fall under the three-year mandate by this time next year, she stated.
Revaluation ‘report card’ shows fewer appeals than expected
Young said the revaluation led to 1,682 appeals filed between March 1 and May 22, or 2.977% of Craven County’s 56,505 taxable real estate parcels.
Young said she had estimated up to 3,000 appeals from the 51,500 property owners who were notified of the revaluation last August.
“I’m very well pleased and can say that the hard work of our entire team has paid off,” she commented.
Young said technology advancements during the 2023 revaluation had allowed property owners to submit a total of 317 appeals online. As of June 16, 70 appellants had filed to go to the tax department’s board of equalization and review, she noted.
“I expect that number to become smaller over the next couple of weeks,” she said. “We still work things out along the way and it’s very typical for that number to decrease.”
Young said she expected Craven County’s real estate market to remain strong for the foreseeable future. According to information she provided from the Neuse River Region Association of Realtors, the average number of days a house has remained on the market in Craven County was in the 30-day range for both April and May and was between 45 and 55 days the previous three months.
“Between one and 90 days on the market is considered excellent,” Young told the board.
By Todd Wetherington, co-editor. Send an email with questions or comments.