DeKalb County’s efforts to correct its tax values for 2009 roll out today with the mailing of about 100,000 tax revaluations — this time taking foreclosures into account.
Tax officials say the do-over will benefit thousands of property owners across the county who will see their county tax appraisals, and possibly their tax bills, fall in reaction to the ongoing real estate slide.
DeKalb’s first mailing, last month, did not include distressed sales despite a new state law requiring that such sales be used in setting values for 2009.
The first mailing, tax officials said, lowered values on about 13,500 parcels. This one will drop the assessments on 95,000.
“The number of sales we included in our sales ratio studies doubled when we included distressed sales,” said Hank Ruffin, interim chief appraiser.
Ruffin said at least 40,000 properties will fall by more than 25 percent.
“It’s safe to say the southern part of the county took the biggest hit,” Ruffin said. “The northern part was not affected as much. That’s no surprise.”
The work completed by DeKalb assessors over the past 30 days has sliced the county’s tax digest by more than $1 billion and means local governments across DeKalb will be forced to account for lower values in setting their tax rates for 2009-10.
Also, the new values will land this week in the hands of wary residents, some of whom got notices last month they felt didn’t go far enough and more whose property values didn’t get lowered but felt they should have.
“I’m concerned and skeptical,” said Trey Glover, who lives in East Atlanta. “I really don’t think they are going to be sending me anything. But they should. If they don’t send me a notice, I’m going to be overpaying.”
Glover did not get a notice from DeKalb when assessors mailed out about 28,000 notices for 2009 last month. The county has his home valued at $350,100. Glover said he’s been trying to refinance, and banks say it’s worth about $50,000 less. He has no right to challenge the value unless he gets a notice in this round.
“The banks obviously think the values have come down,” Glover said.
For those who do get notices, they next must decide whether DeKalb assessors accurately reflected the market as of Jan. 1 or failed to lower taxable values enough. Those who don’t likely will appeal and challenge the county to lower values even more. Appeals must be filed by June 19.
Ruffin noted the new mailing includes no reappraisals increasing values unless the property was changed. The first batch included several thousand increases despite another state law banning such changes until 2012.
Everyone who got a notice the first time will get a notice this time, Ruffin added. Those who have already appealed the first notice can drop their appeal after getting the new notice or continue to fight, Ruffin said.
The new mailing puts DeKalb much more in line with Georgia’s other major counties. DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton and Clayton have now sent out, or soon will, more than 70,000 notices dropping the values.
Cobb plans to mail out more than 20,000 notices lowering values on Friday. Phil Hogsed, chief appraiser, could not be reached to explain why the county’s numbers were so different than its neighbors. However, he had previously said Cobb would consider foreclosure activity in its 2009 notices.
Labels: dekalb county, Georgia, lower assessment, tax assessment
# posted by
Brian Vanderhoff @ 8:05 AM
