Norfolk tax values based on older prices

NORFOLK

South Hampton Roads' housing prices fell 13 percent over the past year, but in Norfolk, real estate tax assessments haven't kept pace.

The city assessor told City Council members last week that the average assessment declined only 1.35 percent.

That distressed some council members, who worry that Norfolk's assessments don't reflect true market values and who are now pushing for the city to change the assessment process.

"It's frustrating for people," Councilman Barclay C. Winn said, adding that many residents whose homes are now worth less haven't received any tax relief. "They haven't seen any decrease in their assessments."

That's in part because Norfolk uses older sales data than the four other cities in South Hampton Roads, leaving it further behind the curve in tracking real estate trends.

Real estate Assessor Deborah Bunn said newer data wouldn't make that much of a difference in assessments - a contention backed up by numbers from the rest of South Hampton Roads.

Residential assessments fell 4 percent in Virginia Beach, 1.8 percent in Chesapeake, 1 percent in Suffolk and less than 1 percent in Portsmouth.

Councilman W. Randy Wright said he doesn't care. He still wants the most up-to-date data possible, and Councilman Don Williams agreed.

"I think it would be the will of the council to do what it takes get this done," Williams said. "The closer we can get to today's market, the better off we are."

Norfolk considered sales from July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008, for its most recent batch of reassessments. Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk used data from Jan. 1, 2008, through Dec. 31 - six months later than Norfolk. Virginia Beach cuts off sales the first week in December.

Mayor Paul Fraim, like many other council members, said he hadn't realized that Norfolk's process puts it behind.

"I thought we were in line with our neighboring cities," he said.

In order to move its assessment dates, Norfolk would need a new computer system and more employees. The city's philosophy on customer service also would have to change, Bunn said.

Bunn said the other cities mail their assessments in late March. Norfolk begins mailing assessments in October, continuing through March. That gives her staff far more time to deal with the 20,000 phone calls and 4,000 office visits it receives from citizens, she said.

"But we certainly will do whatever the council wants us to do," she said.

Bunn said in the recent reassessment, about 20 neighborhoods in Norfolk experienced declines between 3 and 23 percent.

Condominiums in downtown and Ocean View took the biggest hit. Single-family home values in some Ocean View neighborhoods also fell.

Bunn added that some neighborhoods remain underassessed. An analysis of the Fox Hall neighborhood showed assessments there were at only 85 percent of market value.

When the state last evaluated Norfolk in 2007, it found that assessed values were at 75.8 percent of market value, she said.

That's not much comfort to Jan Cloud. She said housing values have plummeted in the blocks surrounding her Ghent home.

Yet Cloud's assessment fell by $500 to $726,700.

"I've talked with Realtors," she said. "And there's no way I can sell this house for $700,000."

Bunn said Cloud or others with questions should call her office.

For his part, Winn said he remained frustrated.

"Housing prices were falling last year, and we were

told that would all be reflected in this year's assessments," he said. "It's a year later, and

the losses our citizens have experienced still aren't reflected.

"There has to be a way for us to update these assessments more quickly."

Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com