It is almost property tax appeal time again in DeKalb County GA. The DeKalb County tax assessor will be sending out 2013 property tax assessment notices soon. One of the DeKalb County appraisers told me a week ago that the envelopes were in but they weren’t quite ready to print the assessment notices yet. DeKalb County tax assessor is implementing a new mass appraisal system this year. This is a computer assisted mass appraisal system, which stores all of the property data and also has several different approaches to value built in so that they can appraise the property. It remains to be seen if they will get the property tax assessment notices out soon, or whether it will be a little later in the month. Last year DeKalb County tax assessor notices went out at the end of May.
The DeKalb County Board of Equalization is still holding hearings on 2012 values. They will probably continue holding hearings on 2012 values even after the 2013 values have been mailed. I think things at the DeKalb County Board of Equalization or moving along nicely, though. Compared to last year, going to the Board of Equalization is a dream. The past two years the hearings have been on a first-come-first-serve basis. Last year when you showed up early for a hearing you found scores of other people already there in a sweltering hot room. This year the Board of Equalization hearings appear to be moving along a little better and they are not scheduling nearly as many people on the same day.
Last year when the DeKalb County tax assessor put out 2012 notices it was noted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the total tax digest, or the value of all taxable property in the County, had declined by 6%. As evidenced by the Case-Shiller home price index home values in the Atlanta Metropolitan area have risen sharply over the last 12 months. It will be interesting to see how many residential values are increased for tax year 2013.
On the commercial front capitalization rates have been declining since the height of the great recession. It seems logical to me that the DeKalb County tax assessor will be looking at commercial values for property types and market areas that need to be increased. Of course, the recovery has been very uneven, with only the highest quality properties, or institutional grade investments, selling for top dollar, while other less desirable properties languish on the market with higher vacancy rates and lower rents.
2013 may be the year that the DeKalb County tax assessor can finally start to raise values and increase the tax digest to help out DeKalb County budget process. Of course it’s politically incorrect to say that the tax assessor raises value for the benefit of the County budget. But if values are rising, that’s exactly what’s happening. Fair market value is the goal of the DeKalb County tax assessor and we are waiting to see where that is on all of the property in DeKalb County.
