It's now 2011 and here in Mecklenburg County that means the new property tax values for approximately 360,000 parcels. This isn't a surprise, we actually were suppose to do this in 2009 but the County delayed the reavaluation for two years due to the economic downturn. But the time has arrived and many property owners may not be happy in the next few weeks when they receive their notices.
North Carolina law states that all counties must revaluate property values at least every eight years. Mecklenburg county's last revaluation was in 2003. Revaluation is when the county reappraises all properties within the county for tax assessment purposes. The county uses a defined process to determine these values. It's complex and I'm probably the last one to try to explain it, but it's a Mass Appraisal Method where factors are derived from analysis of market sales data, and those factors are applied en masse to property characteristics to generate new values.
Many may not agree with the new tax value that they are assessed. Many may feel that their property's market value has decreased since the economic downturn. That may be true, but keep in mind one important point ... the market's general decline began in 2007, the last countywide revaluation was in 2003. Most values are still somewhat higher than in 2003.
Also know that you can file an appeal with the County if you feel your revaluation is incorrect. The Mecklenburg County Board of Equalization and Review will consider those appeals. But the County expects an increased number of appeals, upwards of 40,000 and they have stated that not all will heard. They say as many as 8,000 appeals may be formally heard during the property revaluation process this year.
Property owners in Mecklenburg County can expect to receive the notices by the end of the month, with tax bills reflecting the new values being sent out in the fall. If you want to look up your property information you can do so using the Real Estate Lookup tool. If you would like to look up property tax information, you can use the Tax Bill Lookup tool.
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