At the Guilford County Board of Commissioners 2020 Retreat on Monday, Feb. 24, the commissioners got some very good news about the tax base from Tax Director Ben Chavis – and his message also means good news for homeowners and other property owners in the county.
The Guilford County Tax Department does a reevaluation of all property in the county every five years and the next one won’t be until 2022. However, Chavis told the board that, in the three years since the last countywide revaluation, property values in Guilford County have seen terrific growth across the board.
More valuable property means more tax revenue at the existing property tax rate, however, the county won’t be able to benefit from all that growth until the next revaluation in two years. For property owners thinking about selling, though, the numbers can mean real profits at the time of sale.
“Things are moving to be on a positive front,” Chavis said.
He said conditions could always change in the two years before the next revaluation – however, right now, they look highly positive.
“I can tell you that, at this point, based on what we are seeing, we will have much more growth in 2022 than we did in 2012 and 2017,” he said.
According to Chavis, the property value increases since 2017 have been across the board, with some of the biggest jumps coming in the hotel and apartment categories.
“Apartment complexes are always selling higher than we have on the books,” Chavis told the commissioners and county staff at the Bur-Mil Clubhouse in Greensboro.
The hotel properties that have sold since the last revaluation were, on average, on the county’s books at 67.5 percent of the sale price – almost 33 percent undervalued due to recent growth in property values.
Of the apartment complexes in Guilford County that have traded hands in recent years, those were being valued by the county at 26 percent less than the market value – that is, less than the sale price.
Commercial properties are on average listed at 19 percent below market value and residences are listed at 13 percent below their market value.
Property values almost always go up between revaluations; however, the 2012 revaluation was an exception due to the 2008 financial collapse. In 2012, property values were listed on the county’s tax rolls at 103 percent of their actual market value.
