MOUNT VERNON — The county is in the midst of a property value reappraisal, according to Knox County Auditor Margaret Ann Ruhl, and the re-appraisals on around 42,000 parcels in the county started nearly two years ago.
Ruhl said that all information regarding property values has been gathered, and currently the appraisal team is involved in spot reviews throughout the county. “They’ve done almost all the review of the information they’ve gathered,” said Ruhl, and all of the information that is needed has been entered into the computers. The next step, said Ruhl, is to send a tentative abstract to the Ohio State Department of Taxation. “That tells them where we’re at with our values,” Ruhl explained.
Every six years, Knox County has a reappraisal, and every three years the county has what is known as a triennial update to adjust property values. Ruhl said that this year, Franklin County is in the midst of a triennial update, but the county decided to freeze property values due to the economic slowdown facing the state and the nation. Ruhl said that in the past, Knox County property values have, on average, increased, but this year she is not sure what the results of the overall reappraisals will be.
“Some [property values] may stay the same ... most of them will go up ... I don’t know, with this economic climate, what will happen this year,” Ruhl said. She also noted that in previous reappraisal years, property values have increased by 10 percent to 20 percent. However, she continued and said that she does not believe that values will increase at that rate this year. “I don’t anticipate that this time,” said Ruhl. “I think it will be a modest increase,” she said, referring to overall property values in the county.
“I think people should be prepared that the state is not going to give me the order to keep the values the same,” said Ruhl. According to Ruhl, the state will issue orders once the county’s tentative abstract is received and reviewed.
According to statistics from the Web site of the Ohio Association of Realtors, the numbers are down in terms of sales in Knox County. Between April 2007 and April 2008, the number of units sold, the dollar volume and the average sale price for the county have declined. The statistics show that the average sale price in Knox County was at $131,027 in April of 2007, compared to an average sale price of $120,181 for April, 2008, a decrease of 8.3 percent.
Knox County Treasurer Sandra Mizer said that in general, a reappraisal leads to higher property values and hence higher property taxes, but this is not always the case. “When there is a reappraisal, or a triennial update, the pattern has been that [the change in values], in turn, reflects in a raise in taxes, for the most part,” said Mizer. She noted that her office is sometimes mistakenly contacted when a property owner believes that their property taxes are too high. “My name is associated with their bill, so they assume that [my office] has something to do with the reappraisal, and [we] don’t,” said Mizer. She said that her office is happy to direct property owners with questions to the right office.
The reappraisals for the county were led by John G. Cleminshaw Inc., a company that has been certified by the state to perform mass-appraisals. According to Ruhl, these are different methods than bank appraisers use. Five listers went out to properties to note changes and the information was then given to the appraisal company which then processed the data. According to Ruhl, the reappraisals for the county cost $668,500 for two years of work.
