The Whitfield County Board of Assessors mailed out annual property assessment notices for 38,747 real estate parcels and 7,507 personal property accounts on Friday, June 17. Taxpayers should expect assessments to arrive by mail in the coming days.
This year, the Assessors office performed a large rural review and revaluation project, affecting about 12,000 real parcels. Risking citation for methods out of compliance with the Georgia Department of Revenue, the Board of Assessors determined a full rural review and revaluation was needed.Most rural property owners should expect some type of value change. However, this isn’t a blanket increase or decrease. Many factors went into determining whether a property received an increase or decrease in value.
To determine the fair market value for rural properties, the appraisal staff analyzed four years of county-wide sales data, physically reviewed all rural parcels and identified characteristics, such as shape,topography and amount of road frontage, to accurately value each rural property. The office broke down price points based on sale trends in geographic areas to accurately value property equitably and uniformly.
These value changes are not simply a change in value over the course of one assessment year, but the culmination of analyzing sales and market data from the last few years.The net taxable values of properties with agricultural or conservation exemptions should not be affected by this revaluation and review. The fair market values of these types of properties will change as a result of this review, but the value from which the agricultural exemption is calculated will never increase more than 3 percent in one year.
Many urban values stayed unchanged for 2016. However, some revaluations were conducted in areas where solid sales data was available. Any additions or subtractions made to properties on or before Jan. 1 date of assessment are also reflected on this year’s assessment.
Personal property taxpayers shouldn’t expect major changes in valuation this year. As always, personal property values are heavily weighted by data supplied by taxpayers on their annual tax return form,which were due April 1.
If you have questions or concerns about your assessment notice, feel free to contact the Assessors office at 706-275-7410. A property owner has 45 days to file a written appeal. The deadline to file a written appeal is Aug. 1, 2016.