Agenda 09-04-2025; 8-a - Minutes for the July 8, 2025 Business Meeting

Browse Search

22 1 Nancy Freeman said that is the nature of the sales approach. She said if you don't have 2 enough sales to get the information you are comfortable with, you look at similar neighborhoods 3 and sales that would fit into the same mold. She said there are 130 neighborhoods that have not 4 had sales and they will focus on those neighborhoods after the study because they believe 5 there will be an issue there. She said after they are done looking at the PRD and the PRB, they 6 will get information on those neighborhoods to the Board of Equalization and Review. She said 7 after that they will look at the neighborhoods with no sales. 8 Vice-Chair Hamilton asked why the consultant is looking at census blocks and how they 9 fit with the neighborhoods. 10 Chad Phillips said the study in 2022 used census blocks and they thought to stay in-line 11 with that report. 12 Vice-Chair Hamilton said she wanted to look at that study, because census blocks are 13 only geographical groupings. 14 Nancy Freeman wondered if there was a limitation in the data which led to the use of 15 census blocks. 16 Commissioner Portie-Ascott said according to slide #22 the department identified 44 17 neighborhoods and asked how those were determined. 18 Nancy Freeman said that staff identified 44 and are adding the other 20. She said the 19 44 came from PRDs and they were out of IAAO range. 20 Commissioner Portie-Ascott asked where the 40 properties that are LLCs or exempt are 21 located. 22 Nancy Freeman said they are made up of appeals by OCPTJC, Habitat for Humanity, 23 and properties in the Northside district. 24 Commissioner Fowler asked how far back the department goes on sales. 25 Nancy Freeman said January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2024. 26 Commissioner Fowler said there was a rapid rise about a year and a half ago. 27 Nancy Freeman said the county was out of compliance with the sales ratio in 2022. 28 Chair Bedford asked for an explanation of tax rate codes. 29 Nancy Freeman said there are tax rates for each jurisdiction. She said there is one for 30 the towns, for the Chapel Hill Carrboro School District, for the county, for all the fire districts. 31 She gave an example of someone who lived in Efland, that their code would include the county 32 and Efland fire district. She said someone in Chapel Hill has Chapel Hill, the county, and the 33 Chapel Hill Carrboro School District as well. 34 Chair Bedford asked if the tax district is determined by the tax code. 35 Nancy Freeman said it is. 36 Chair Bedford asked if that is too big of an area. 37 Nancy Freeman said it is a way to stratify information and identify where there might be 38 issues. She said they were asked to look at 2024 vs. 2025 values by location. She said that is 39 an effort to look at those geographical areas. She said they are also looking at townships. 40 Chair Bedford asked how equity would be looked at in the census block. She said she 41 was concerned that if an area is too big it would mask problems. 42 Nancy Freeman said looking at it in multiple ways gives them more opportunities to see 43 if there are issues they need to correct. 44 Chair Bedford asked how looking at the land value and the year built affect appraisals. 45 Nancy Freeman gave an example of a neighborhood with one outlier. She said they 46 looked into why it was out of line with all other sales. She said they found it was because it was 47 sold when it was vacant land and then the valuation for 2025 included a house. She said that 48 value in 2025 shouldn't affect whether that neighborhood is properly valued or not. She said the 49 neighborhood is still not within the standards that they are looking to use. She said at that point 50 they look at other sales and see what is wrong. She said it could be the land value or the year 51 built.