Agenda - 11-09-2010 - 2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Durham, Orange properties on mark 15 Durham's 2010 ratio --based on sales data from last year -- is very close to the ideal $1 to $1 match, coming in at 0.9987. Tax assessors here revalued property two years ago, in 2008, and according to the state that year hit the market average dead on. They managed the same feat in 2001. Orange County's current ratio is 0.9865, again very close to the $1 for $1 ideal. It's a year removed from a somewhat controversial property revaluation that saw critics azgue that Orange's assessors had overvalued land and homes compared to actual market conditions. But according to the state, the Orange tax office has never in its six most recent revaluations hit the $1 to $1 standard for valuing property. Each time, it assessed properties on average for less than they were worth on the market. The current ratio is actually closer to the ideal than it was immediately following all but two of Orange's six most recent revaluations. McLaughlin said another reason for concern is that counties like Durham aren't seeing the drop in their ratio they'd normally expect as the years pass since their most recent revaluation. For example, two years after its 2001 revaluation, Durham on average was taxing • property on only about 94.4 cents of its actual market value. And two years after its 1493 revaluation, it was taxing only 87.4 cents of a property's market value. So a $1 to $1 ratio now isn't necessarily good news. "If we're not seeing a big drop like other places, we're seeing flat [numbers], a lack of growth," McLaughlin said. Many of the counties with plus-1 ratios are, like Cherokee, in the mountains or near the coast, suggesting that the market for vacation homes has taken a hit. But a few urban or urbanizing counties have taken a hit. Wake County's ratio is about 1,03, meaning assessed values are 3 percent higher than the market average. Forsyth County's is about 1.01 and Chatham's is just slightly above the ideal at 1.0011. Forsyth and Chatham, like Orange County, are just a year removed from a property revaluation. Wake last revalued property for tax purposes in 2008, the same as Durham. A 2008 revaluation would have come as real-estate prices were neaz the peak, McLaughlin said. © heraldsun.com 2010 • http://www.heraldsun.com/printer friendly/9314920 09/03/2010