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

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21 1 Nancy Freeman said she would check the definition and then provide an example to the 2 Board. 3 Commissioner Carter thanked Nancy Freeman for the department's work in addressing 4 issues quickly. 5 Commissioner McKee said his concerns were the impact of the tax rate on lower-income 6 residents. He asked about the remaining 1,138 appeals with no information. 7 Nancy Freeman said they received notices of no value change. She said that the state 8 law requires that the property owner demonstrate why the property value is wrong, but that her 9 office reviews every informal appeal even if there isn't much evidence presented. She said 10 those in the informal process have the right to appeal on a formal level which is more in-depth. 11 Commissioner McKee asked what the process is after a property owner receives a "no 12 change" notice. He asked how informal appeals work. 13 Nancy Freeman described the process for informal appeals, which does not always 14 result in a field review. She said for every formal appeal they go out and look at properties. She 15 said they've done field reviews for 10 percent of the informal appeals. 16 Commissioner McKee mentioned that a $300,000 home that is 50 years old is not the 17 same as a $300,000 home that is 5 years old. 18 Nancy Freeman said they take that into consideration, as well as the effective year built 19 which looks at the upgrades to a property. 20 Commissioner McKee thanked her for the information and said he gets a lot of questions 21 about how the process works. He said he understands they cannot go into every property in the 22 county for appraisals. 23 Nancy Freeman said that was correct and that instead they do mass appraisals where 24 some assumptions are made. She said that it is important that owners review the record and 25 appeal if they feel there is something incorrect about the appraisal. She said owners have until 26 July 30 to make an appeal. 27 Vice-Chair Hamilton asked for more information on a time adjusted sales price. 28 Nancy Freeman referred to slide #5. She said they collect sales date from the time of 29 the last revaluation through December 2024. She said that they tend to put the most emphasis 30 on 2023 and 2024 because those are the most recent sales figures. She said there are 31 sometimes situations where they don't have sales in a neighborhood, and they look at older 32 sales. 33 Chad Phillips, Deputy Tax Assessor, said the PRB requires a time-adjusted sale. He 34 said he used the Redfin recommended North Carolina rate of 0.065 per month. He said if you 35 look at a sale that occurred in February 2021, then you apply that rate every month until a 36 January 1, 2025 sale date. 37 Vice-Chair Hamilton clarified that the normal process is to take the sales price in 38 whatever year. She gave an example of a neighborhood that had no sales in 2023 or 2024, but 39 had a sale in 2022. She said they would take that sales price for the property. 40 Nancy Freeman said that they're normal process is to use the sales as they are and not 41 make time adjustments. She said this study will look at the effect of time adjusted sales. 42 Vice-Chair Hamilton asked if the consultant would come up with their own time-adjusted 43 co-efficient or if they were using Redfin. 44 Nancy Freeman said they are only using Redfin internally. She said the consultant 45 would come up with their own rate. 46 Vice-Chair Hamilton said the details matter with how the time-adjustment is calculated. 47 Nancy Freeman said the vendor will use Orange County sales to develop their own time- 48 adjustments. She said they use the Redfin number internally because that's the closest they 49 can get to let them know where they need to recheck properties. 50 Vice-Chair Hamilton said they are developing the revaluation on homes that have 51 actually sold, not on those that haven't, and that doesn't create enough information.