WRAL Investigates: Tax sticker shock coming when Wake County updates home values
In just a few weeks, every homeowner in Wake County will get a notice in the mail with the new value of their home and land.
The revaluation happens every four years and helps determine how much you pay in property taxes. However, this cycle may come with sticker shock considering the housing market soared in 2021 and 2022.
"We’re going to have a big increase in value for this four-year cycle," said Marcus Kinrade, Wake County’s tax administrator.
The 2020 revaluation brought an average 20% increase in home values. This time around will likely be bigger.
WRAL Investigates got an inside look at how Wake County determines your home’s value.
WRAL News toured a Garner neighborhood with county appraisers as they noted the condition of the homes, including the paint, the roof and other improvements.
"[The] garage may be new. Definitely think [there are] some new windows here," said Matthew Harris, who manages a team of nearly 30 appraisers.
The task is daunting as the team works its way through 165,000 field reviews of properties across the county.
Harris told WRAL it’s important to hit the streets and eyeball all of the properties.
"I’m a homeowner and you’re a homeowner," he said. "We want to be as fair and equitable to everyone across the county as we can."
The field visits focus on homes built before 2000.
"It’s typically the age of homes where owners are starting to do remodeling and renovations on their property, so we want to see them in the field," Harris said.
Notes from the field reviews end up back at the tax office where property records are updated. They also factor in permits for interior upgrades.
The work started more than a year ago, as Wake County has to reset the tax values of more than 425,000 residential and commercial properties. Those properties are divided into 20 townships and 15 municipalities, which are broken down even more into 5,100 neighborhoods.
The appraisers are looking at the geographic, economic and market conditions for each of the neighborhoods.
Homes within a neighborhood are compared to similar homes that have sold over the last two years. The use of sales data will continue until the last sale of the year, so the county can’t reveal just yet how much home values will change.
However, the median home sale price skyrocketed over the past four years, which gives us a clue about the property value jumps we could see. In October 2019, the typical home sold for $306,000. This year, it was $452,500. That’s a 48% increase.
"This is going to be a big increase in value for just about everyone," Kinrade said.
However, he said, that shouldn’t put fear in families because the county usually lowers the tax rate some to balance out the new, higher values.
The notices with your new property values will go out the week of Jan. 16.
Podcast: WRAL's Matt Talhelm investigates spiking property rates
For the past year, assessors have been evaluating 450,000 residental and commercial properties in Wake County to prepare for new property taxes in early 2024. The last evaluation in 2020 resulted in a 20% hike in taxes. They are likely to climb by an even higher percentage next year. WRAL Investigates reporter Matt Talhelm is covering this issue in multiple reports and joins us in this episode to explain how it all works.
