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-Durham, Orange properties on mazk <br />14 <br />• Durham, Orange properties on mark <br />08.28.10 - 09:49 pm , <br />By Ray Gronberg <br />gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648 <br />DURHAM -- State figures suggest that on average, property in Durham and <br />Orange counties is still selling for about or slightly more than its assessed tax <br />value. <br />But in 31 other counties -- among them two Triangle counties, Wake and <br />Chatham -- assessed tax values for many properties are now running a little to a <br />lot ahead of what people can actually sell them for. <br />Those numbers prompted Chris McLaughlin, a professor in UNC's School of <br />Government, to author a blog posting on aschool-sponsored website, Coates' <br />Canons, that warned that many North Carolina communities could face fiscal or <br />tax crunches linked to a shaky real-estate mazket. <br />Though North Carolina didn't have the same real-estate bubble places like Florida <br />and Nevada did, many counties aren't seeing the steady growth in tax base they <br />once could count on, McLaughlin said. <br />• "Combine that with the drop in sales-tax revenue, and we've got a real problem," <br />he said in an interview Friday. <br />McLaughlin decided to speak up after reviewing figures published by the N.C. <br />Department of Revenue. <br />The department each year puts out a "sales assessment ratio" study, comparing a <br />sample of sales numbers against published tax assessments, which officials are <br />supposed to use in calculating payments due from some utility companies. <br />But McLaughlin finds the numbers in the study interesting for what they say <br />about the condition of the real-estate market in each county. <br />In theory, the assessed value and market value of property is supposed to match <br />up, $1 for $1. <br />In practice, the ratio fluctuates. In most counties, it usually drops further below 1 <br />to 1 the longer tax assessors have gone between state-mandated property <br />revaluations. In some, it clocks in above a 1-to-1 match thanks to assessment or <br />market problems. <br />What caught McLaughlin's eye was a sharp rise in the number of counties <br />reporting problem ratios. <br />Cherokee County, for example, now has astate-worst ratio of 1.15 -- meaning <br />• assessed values are 15 percent higher than actual market values. <br />http://www.heraldsun.com/printer friendly/9314920 09/03/2010 <br />