Agenda - 12-1-14 Reg. Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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LEE COUNTY `' Committed Today for a Better Tomorrow November 13, 2014 Lee County Board of Commissioners, County Manager, John Crumpton 106 Hillcrest Drive Sanford, NC 27330 Dear Board of Commissioners and Mr. Crumpton: On behalf of the Lee County Tax Office, I am pleased to present the 2014 Sales /Assessment Ratio Report. The Lee County Tax Office Appraisal Division's Annual Sales /Assessment Ratio Report was designed in an effort to provide a year in review of real property sales within Lee County. This will allow us to relay to the governing board and county administration a comparison of 2013 tax assessed values to actual market sales. It goes further to show the quality of real property tax assessments within the County. Being currently scheduled for a 2017 countywide revaluation, the Lee County Tax Office Appraisal Division is monitoring and analyzing market sales almost daily. These current sales will be used to bring tax assessment up or down to current market value as of January 1, 2017, the appraisal date. North Carolina General Statute 105 — 287 prohibits a county tax assessor from changing the assessed value of a property in a non - revaluation year for an economic consideration. This means that once a revaluation is conducted, the effective tax assessments and schedule of values both are more or less frozen until the next revaluation. Uniformity and accuracy are utmost goals. As a means of quality control, we currently conduct a sales /assessment ratio study each quarter for the North Carolina Department of Revenue ( NCDOR). This quarterly study for the NCDOR is based on a random sample of sales in Lee County from the preceding quarter only, not all market transactions. The NCDOR collects this information for all 100 North Carolina counties and provides an annual summary. Lee County's Annual Sales /Assessment Ratio Report measures annual assessment quality by looking at the most recent calendar year's qualified real estate market transactions and comparing that information to corresponding 2013 tax assessed values at the time of sale. North Carolina law requires that property be assessed at 100% of its market value as of the date of its last revaluation, which is currently January 1, 2013 for Lee County. Market conditions affecting properties can change almost daily, but tax assessments reflect market values as of one point in time: the last countywide revaluation.