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By Alison Treen, For The Miami Student
Preliminary property reappraisal numbers show residential real estate values in Butler County have dropped 1.7 percent since the last assessment in 2011.
According to the Butler County Auditor's website, Ohio law mandates reappraisals every six years by county auditors, with updates in between each six-year cycle.
The reappraisals are based on three main criteria: cost, market and income. The cost includes replacement of the home and the land value of the property. The marketability of the property is based on comparing similar properties to the home. The income also affects the reappraisal of a house if the property is a rental.
The reappraisal is a long process involving gathering data, interpreting and finalizing it.
Pictures are taken of each property, and then analysts look for changes in the properties since the last appraisal (this may include demolition or new construction). Land areas are then grouped into markets or neighborhoods, and there is a drive-past inspection of each property with the new data. Tentative values are then sent to the Ohio Department of Tax Equalization.
The reappraisal done in Butler County was a mass appraisal, meaning that each house was not individually inspected. Therefore, actual values can change due to interior upgrades or issues like flooding that may not be obvious from statistical evaluations from the mass area.
The preliminary information on the reappraisal of Butler County is not official yet. Property owners can appeal their appraisal by an Informal Review.
Values will not be finalized until late November or early December, according to David Brown, Butler County Deputy Auditor of Community and Employee Relations.
Although tentative residential values show a drop, agricultural land values show an increase.
"It is the agricultural value per acre, based on soil type, that increased," Berkley Rose, the Appraisal Project Manager of the Butler County Auditor's Office said. "The increase was based on an updated study of crop yields and prices, and is determined by the Ohio Dept. of Taxation."
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As for the impact of lower reappraisal values on the community, officials do not seem to be worried about the housing market.
"It is actually the reversal of this," said Rose. "It is the real estate market (home prices), that guides [auditors] through the reappraisal process, and not the other way around."
Just because property values may decrease does not mean that taxes will be affected. Ohio House Bill 920 prevents taxes from being impacted by changing values.
"For example, if value - overall - in a particular district goes down, the tax rate would be raised so that voter approved levy dollars are still collected," explained Rose. "If value - overall - in a particular district goes up, the tax rate would be lowered, so that those same voter approved dollars are still collected."
Although Rose stated that a small portion of the tax rate could be affected, "the overall fiscal status of any particular taxing district can vary widely, and for reasons beyond the scope of real property taxes."
It is unclear if any the new reappraisal values will have any impact on the community until the report is finalized. Then only time will tell.
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