The 2019 Mecklenburg county real estate revaluation is underway for all residential and commercial real estate. Throughout 2018, Mecklenburg county appraisers will be in each neighborhood trying to evaluate sales and improvements, which will become the property’s new tax value starting in the 2020 property tax year.
If you were around in 2011, you know what a mess that property assessment process was. Many homeowners throughout the county were upset that their properties were valued well beyond market value while others were valued well under. It even impacted some real estate sales as some buyers became confused as to how tax value related to purchase price. Thankfully, today’s process promises to be a lot transparent and value appeals much easier.
Unless your home was built since 2013, the tax value that your property taxes are based upon is from 2011 Countywide Revaluation or 2013 Revaluation Review. Back in 2011, the Mecklenburg County Assessors used approximately 10,000 “Qualified Sales” (one owner, one home, one parcel sale at arms length) to determine how values have increased since 2003 / 2004 (the prior revaluation); resulting in a median price of $193,000 (or $21,000 higher than the actual median home price at the time). Since then, the median home price in Mecklenburg County has risen 39.5%, with commercial properties rising even greater.
When will you know your new property value?
The 2020 property tax values should be available to homeowners starting at the beginning of 2019. There should be enough time to file appeals to the increased tax value prior to the first bill being sent, which should occur around September 2019 and due by Jan 1, 2020.
Appealing your Tax Value is So Much Easier!
Probably the only good thing about this round of tax revaluation is the new technology that the county has implemented to help make valuation appeals much easier. In the past, this meant paying an appraiser to make a formal assessment or hiring a local Realtor to provide comps. Now, this can be done online using a service called Modria.
Homeowners can now view the tax card information and submit changes online as well as learn the status of any appeal. To challenge the tax value, owners can even select comparable sales from within their neighborhood to file along with their appeal.
I would recommend comparing the square footage that is listed on the property card to the square footage provided in a last appraisal, as that seems to be a common source of misinformation.
For more, homeowners should visit MeckReval.com