BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – Many Sullivan County residents will get some bad news this week as they learn exactly how the county’s latest reappraisal will affect their property values and potential tax payments.
Property Assessor Bob Icenhour said the average county land value has increased by about 23 percent since the last reappraisal was conducted in 2005.
“While in a majority of states, property values have gone down, ours have shot up,” he said, adding that some properties will see an increase of less than 23 percent, while others will see more.
On Friday, Icenhour’s office sent out its first batch of reappraisal cards telling 39,000 county landowners exactly how much their individual properties will increase or decrease in value. The remaining cards will go out Thursday.
The property assessor said he’s expecting a lot of people to come by with questions and he already has set up chairs in the hallway outside the office.
According to a study by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the home values in the Bristol-Kingsport Metropolitan Statistical Area increased 6.3 percent in 2008, giving the region the country’s third highest increase that year.
A lot of this increase has had to do with the region’s low crime rate, high number of physicians per capita, low cost of living and low taxes, said Jeff Fleming, Kingsport’s assistant city manager for development.
These factors make the region a good place to live and also make the region an attractive destination for retirees, Icenhour said.
“We’ve seen a lot of halfbacks around here,” he said, referring to a group of people who live in northern states, set out to retire in Florida, but end up coming “halfway back” to states like Tennessee and Virginia.
These retirees aren’t afraid to pay market price or higher for a new home, Icenhour said, one reason for the increase in property values.
He said the boom in commercial development in the county over the past five years along Volunteer Parkway in Bristol and Stone Drive in Kingsport also played a role in the increase.
This morning, Icenhour said, he’ll start to schedule times when landowners can stop by his office and talk about their reappraisals.
Board of Equalization hearings, which give people a chance to formally appeal their new property values with county officials, will start June 1, he said.
Icenhour also said county homeowners may get some good news as part of the reappraisal. Because state law prohibits county governments from making a significant
amount of money during a reappraisal year, the county will have to lower its property tax rate to balance the increase in property values.
The county’s real property tax rate is currently $2.53 per $1,000 of assessed value, he said. A property’s assessed value is 25 percent of its appraised value if it’s a residential or agricultural piece of land and 40 percent of its appraised value if it’s commercial or industrial land.
Icenhour said the county’s new property tax rate, or its certified tax rate, will likely end up being around $2.06 per $1,000 of assessed value.
But the Sullivan County Commission will have the ultimate say when it drafts the county budget later this spring, he said.
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518
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