Real Estate Assessments On The Rise, Big Time, In Rockingham County


Real Estate Assessments On The Rise, Big Time, In Rockingham County
By Scott Rogers • January 5, 2022
If you own a property in Rockingham County you likely received a notice in the past week or so that your property has a new tax assessed value! I have heard from quite a few folks who are very surprised by the large increase in the assessed value of their property -- and the corresponding increase in their tax bill. Some property owners seem to have seen a 20%, 25%, 30% or an even larger increase in the assessed value of their property and their tax bills. A few important notes... Rockingham County reassesses real estate every four years. Even though it might seem like this increase in the assessment of your property is a one year change, from 2021 to 2022, it's really not. The last time your property was reassessed was back in 2018. Thus, this increased assessment is based on how the value of your property has changed over the past four years. The 2018 assessment would have been largely based on 2017 sales data and the median sales price (per the HRAR MLS) of detached homes in Rockingham County during 2017 was $220,000. The median sales price of detached homes in 2021 was $288,000. That change from $220K to $288K is a... 31% increase in the median sales price of detached homes in Rockingham County. That's some very rough math - but it would seem that many property values have likely increased 30% (or slightly more or slightly less) over the past four years. As such, it makes sense that assessed values would also have increased by a similar amount between four years ago and today. Finally, don't panic (yet) thinking that your tax bill will increase 25% or 30% this year. It might, but it seems likely it will not. The potential tax bill shown on your notice of a new assessed value is showing you what your tax bill would be with your new assessed value and the current tax rate. But... the County has not yet set the tax rate. Will the County keep the same tax rate, leading to you having to pay as much in property taxes as shown on your notice of your new assessed value? Let's see what would happen if they did keep the same tax rate... Per the "Budget in Brief" for 2021-2022 for Rockingham County (here) it seems that the revenue for property taxes in the budget was $101,297,000. Yes, that is 101 million dollars. Working backwards, given the current tax rate of $0.74 per $100 of assessed value, that means that all of the real estate that was taxed had an approximate combined value of $13,688,783,783. Yes, that is almost 14 billion dollars. So, let's say the 14 billion dollars (approx) of real estate increased in value by 25% given the new assessments. I rounded down a bit from the 31% referenced above. That means the combined taxable properties may very well be worth $17,110,979,730 today -- yes, a bit over 17 billion dollars. Stick with me here -- if the tax rate ($0.74 per $100 of assessed value) remains the same in 2022 it would potentially generate tax revenue of $126,621,250. This would be over 25 million dollars more tax revenue for the 2022-23 budget than existed in the 2021-2022 budget. So, will your property tax bill increase by as much as is shown on the notice of your updated real estate assessment? Maybe -- if the County needs an additional 25 million dollars of revenue to balance their budget. :-) Is that likely? It doesn't seem like it to me. While expenses may be increasing, I doubt there are 25 million dollars (a year) of new expenses that would require that much additional tax revenue. So, in summary, for Rockingham County property owners... 1. The change in your assessment really marks the change in your property value over four years -- not over one year. 2. Real estate values in Rockingham County (per sales prices) seem to have increased by about 30% over the past four years. 3. The actual amount of your property tax bill won't be known until the County sets the tax rate as a part of the budget process. Questions? Feel free to ask me... or call the Rockingham County Reassessment Office at 540-564-5079. :-) Receive Updates by Email Recent Articles: There Are Plenty Of Types Of Houses That Exist That Just Are Not Available To Purchase Home Sales By Price Range In The City Of Harrisonburg Are You Compromising On Aspects Of Your Next Home That You Can Or Cannot Change Later? How Much Slower Are The Winter Months In Our Local Housing Market? Rockingham County and New Home Sales Drive Surge in Area Housing Market Find The Balance Between Optimistic And Realistic Home Pricing Room Size Is Difficult To Understand Solely From Real Estate Photos How Much Would You Value Not Having To Prepare Your Home For Showings? One Out Of Four Homes Is Taking Longer Than A Month To Sell Consider The Cost Of Your Planned Renovations When Planning Your Offer
Have any questions? Contact Scott Rogers at 540-578-0102 or scott@funkhousergroup.com
Based on information from the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of REALTORS® or its MLS, for the period Jan 1, 2000 through Nov 21, 2024 (unless otherwise noted).
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