Home values rose 20% in 5 years, tax man says
New county's appraisals being mailed this week
RICHARD RUBIN
Staff Writer

Residential property values in Mecklenburg County rose about 20 percent over the past five years, county officials announced Tuesday.

That message will hit home for residents starting Saturday. More than 207,000 official notices of the new assessment values are expected to go in the mail Friday. An Internet site showing individual property values is expected to start operating Saturday.

For many homeowners, the increases are a sign that the vibrant local real estate market continues to bolster their biggest asset. But for homeowners in the county's most desirable neighborhoods -- mostly those in the ring surrounding uptown Charlotte -- the rapidly increasing values could mean a bigger tax bill next year. The majority of Mecklenburg houses rose between 1 and 20 percent in assessed value, said county tax assessor John Petoskey, who presented the information to county commissioners Tuesday. About one-fifth increased by more than 40 percent.

At the extremes, nearly 1,900 homes, or 0.9 percent, more than doubled in value. Only 2.1 percent of the single-family homes, or 4,427, have a new value the same or lower than in 1998.

County officials are re-appraising all property for the first time since 1998. State law requires a re-valuation at least once every eight years, but Mecklenburg commissioners decided to accelerate the schedule because of the fast growth in property values.

Gaston and Iredell counties are also re-assessing property this year.

To determine the new values, Mecklenburg workers analyzed recent home sales prices.

The county is still calculating values for commercial and industrial properties. Those take longer because they're more complicated to assess, Petoskey said. Those notices will go out in February and March.

In response to the rising values, county commissioners plan to lower the property tax rate for bills that will be sent out in September, so they collect the same amount of money in property taxes.

The property revaluation then essentially redistributes the tax burden, shifting it from less desirable neighborhoods to those where values increased fastest.

Commissioners also plan to decrease the tax rate more than necessary to compensate for the revaluation. They'll lower the rate to make up for the half-cent sales-tax increase they imposed starting Jan. 1.

Mecklenburg County's current tax rate is 83.97 cents per $100 of assessed value, or $1,260 on a $150,000 house. Homeowners also pay a city or town tax. Residents of the unincorporated area pay 14.5 cents per $100 valuation for police service.

It's still way too early to say what the new property tax rate will be or to calculate an estimated tax bill for next year.

Petoskey noted that residential property makes up 60 percent of the real estate tax base; commercial and industrial properties make up the rest.