Minutes 12-09-2025-Business Meeting

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23 unique properties, with the overlap representing properties that were appealed at both informal and formal levels. Of the formal apeals, 77 were not submitted by the deadline and will not be considered. As of November 26, 2025, the Tax Office issued decisions on 100% of the informal appeals. The Board of Equalization and Review has completed 655 or 64% of the formal appeals with 367 in process. The remaining appeals are scheduled to be completed on or before January 22, 2025. The additional days added in January are to account for rescheduled appeals, continued appeals, and appeals from neighborhood reviews. The total change in assessed value from appeals is a decrease of$232,489,448 as of November 26, 2025. The median change for residential properties is a decrease of$38,000, and the median change for nonresidential properties is a decrease of$66,400. Neighborhood Reviews The Tax Office conducted an equity analysis on the County's 1,026 assessment neighborhoods. The International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) specifies that measures of vertical equity are only representative of possible inequities in neighborhoods that have a statistically significant amount of sales. Based on that, the Tax Office reviewed the neighborhoods with five (5) sales or more and identified 86 neighborhoods that were outside of the equity standards used by the IAAO. Of the neighborhoods with less than five (5) sales, the Tax Office examined those neighborhoods for consistency and reasonableness and identified an additional 76 neighborhoods that required a more thorough review. The Tax Office also studied the 19 neighborhoods identified by the Orange County Property Tax Justice Coalition for possible value adjustments. A total of 171 neighborhoods were identified by the Tax Office for closer review. If value adjustments are made as a result of the neighborhood reviews, property owners will receive notice of the change and will have fifteen (15) days to appeal that change to the Board of Equalization and Review. Tanner Valuation Group is assisting the Tax Office with the neighborhood level reviews. As of November 26, 2025, 152 neighborhood reviews or 89% have been completed. Those reviews resulted in value adjustments to 1,460 properties and a total assessed value decrease of $60,972,300. The remaining 19 neighborhoods will be completed by December 19, 2025. While conducting the neighborhood reviews, the Tanner Group observed some common issues warranting a decrease to the original assessed value. The most common reason that assessed values were reduced during the neighborhood review process was that the original assessed value was not discounted due to deferred maintenance. During the appraisal process, Orange County appraisers conducted roadside evaluations of approximately 10,000 of the approximately 58,000 properties in Orange County. The roadside review can result in a reduction in value due to deferred maintainance if it can be obseved on the exterior of the property, but appraisers do not inspect the interior of homes unless they are invited. As a result, properties that were not viewed by appraisers in a roadside evaluation and properties where maintenance was deferred on the interior would not have been accounted for in the original value assessment. A question about best practices for identifying, verifying, and accounting for deferred maintenance will be added to the Tax Assessment Work Group Request for Proposal for consulting services. Tanner Valuation Group also noted that some neighborhoods in Orange County, particularly near the University, include a variety of housing types. Mass appraisal generally assumes that properties in a neighborhood are like one another. However, some neighborhoods in Orange County have very diverse houising types where older, owner-occupied properties are situated