Joel Burgess

jburgess@citizen-times.com

Editor's note: The maps with this story show how close official tax values are to the the actual values of neighborhood properties, according to sales that have happened since 2013. Places with the lowest percentages are getting the biggest break on average, while those with higher percentages are paying close to market value.

How much is Buncombe County worth?

Try $29.1 billion. That's counting all private, taxable property, according to the Buncombe tax office.

But it's also not quite right. Government assessors last completed a property-by-property, countywide revaluation in 2013. Since that time, a lot has been built and a lot has been sold.

County tax officials have been able to keep up with some increases in value, adding them to the official tax records of properties. But in many cases, particularly in the "hot" neighborhoods, such as downtown's South Slope and the River Arts District, land and buildings are undervalued compared to sale prices over the last three years.

In one case, a downtown hotel sold for $33 million, but it's still being taxed as a $12.7 million building.

What that means, tax officials say, is that owners of undervalued properties are paying less than their fair share in property taxes, which can include county, municipal, school district and fire district taxes. Owners of properties close to market value, meanwhile, are shouldering more of the burden for public safety, schools and other tax-supported services.

The county's Board of Commissioners on April 5 voted 4-3 along party lines, with Democrats in the majority, to push ahead with a countywide reassessment. If commissioners didn't authorize the assessment, they might be forced to by the state because values were so out of whack, with tax values in many cases below 85 percent of sales values, North Carolina Department of Revenue officials said.

A reassessment is a long process, so property owners won't see any major changes immediately. Tax bills on the new values should be due in January 2018 if all goes as planned. So, it's not entirely clear how the revaluation will shake out yet.

But it's largely assumed that the places where property is being sold and resold for higher values, such as the area around Broadway Street and Beaver Lake in North Asheville, will be assigned higher values, and therefore will likely have higher tax bills.

It's also entirely possible that areas whose tax values are close to market values, such as northeast Buncombe and parts of Fairview, could see a tax bill decrease.

How is my tax bill calculated?

Buncombe County assigned tax value x property tax rate(s ) = taxes owed

You can find your property tax value through the county's geographic information systems here: gis.buncombecounty.org/buncomap/ or by contacting the tax department at 828-250-4910, 49 Coxe Ave. downtown.

Property values are reassessed at least every eight years by state law and sooner if tax values fall to less than 85 percent of market value or more than 115 percent of market value. Commissioners can also vote to reassess more frequently.

Sample tax rates:

Buncombe County (Everyone pays this, regardless of whether they live in a munipality): 60.4 cents for every $100 of assessed value

Asheville: 47.5 cents per $100 of assessed value

Black Mountain: 37.5 cents per $100 of assessed value

Asheville City Schools (Note: School district is smaller than city limits): 15 cents per $100 of assessed value

Beaverdam Fire District: 13 cents per $100 of assessed value

Skyland Fire District: 9.1 cents per $100 of assessed value

Tax bill example:

Asheville home assessed at $200,000 inside the school district pays a combined tax rate of $1 and 22.9 cents (county + city + schools) per $100 of assessed value. Or $2,458 annually.

Tax break?

When property is sold at a higher value than its tax assessed value, the new owners get to keep paying taxes based on the cheaper government value, according to state law. It's only when a countywide reassessment is done that the government value can be raised to reflect sale prices. It's also at that time that government values can be raised to reflect general economic trends, such as increased values for new downtown hotels.

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