Dare County, N.C. holds off on revaluation

Revaluation of Dare County real estate has been postponed for a year in an effort to give financially stressed property owners some relief by avoiding a likely tax rate increase.

"We have been very concerned," said Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Warren Judge. "We're just trying to find anything we can do to make life easier. This may be a small contribution. We just felt that it is something we can do."

Commissioners approved the delay at Tuesday's board meeting. A declining real estate market has created a dilemma for the county, a potential revenue shortfall.

During the last revaluation, in 2005, many of the county's 39,200 properties shot up in value, driving up real estate taxes.

Between 1998 and 2005, the value of taxable property in the county ballooned to $15.9 billion from $5.4 billion.

State law mandates county property reassessments at least every eight years, but after that last one Dare County changed the schedule to every five years in an effort to avoid a huge increase in tax bills.

As the reassessment process began for 2010, it became apparent that the majority- 73 percent - of property owners would have to have their taxes raised just to keep the county revenue at the current level, said tax assessor Greta Skeen.

"They wouldn't be getting more revenue," she said. "But most of the people would have to pay more taxes because of it."

Skeen said there are 41,000 taxable commercial and residential parcels in Dare County, but the preliminary data was based on review of 65 percent of the 35,400 residential properties.

Projections show, she said, that a 2010 revaluation, assuming the tax rate remains unchanged, would increase tax bills for non-waterfront property owners an average of $47.

For example, a homeowner would pay $520 on a $200,000 home.

The 2,400 oceanfront properties have lost the most value since 2005, Skeen said. However, most of the remaining 5,700 waterfront properties gained value. Canalfront increased in value, she said, and to a lesser degree, soundfront property is worth more.

In 2005, oceanfront properties made up 19 percent, or $3 billion, of the total value; sound and canalfront, 17 percent, or $2.7 billion; and ocean-influenced, 27 percent, or $4.3 billion.

Skeen said the most recent assessments began in 2007 and had not gone far enough to be able to project the entire tax base. The large number of short sales and foreclosures, she said, is also a complicating factor.

"It makes it more difficult to determine a market value when there are so few sales," Skeen said.

Judge, the board chairman, said the panel does not believe that the economy or the real estate market will be "peachy" by next year, but it may be at least on its way to growing again.

"We've got a tremendous inventory of houses. Nothing is moving," he said.

Skeen said the revaluation work will resume in January where it left off, with a target completion date of January 2011. Another year of waiting is unlikely, she said, because it was determined that it would require an additional $250,000 to start from scratch.

The extra few months could help, she said.

"It does give us more time, and hopefully, the market will be recovering some," Skeen said. "There are little sparks here and there."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com