Some property owners not happy about reappraisals
By Nick Claussen
October 6, 2008
Though property values in Athens County are continuing to increase, some people aren’t happy about how much the Athens County Auditor’s Office is saying their land is worth and should be taxed.
The Auditor’s Office recently completed its countywide reappraisal of properties and sent out cards to nearly 40,000 property owners in the county notifying them about the reappraisal.
“We’re working hard to provide property owners with as much information as possible so they can understand the process and more importantly their role in the process,” County Auditor Jill Thompson said in a news release.
The state of Ohio requires that the county auditor’s office in each county reappraise all properties every six years. The reappraisals often change the value of the properties either by increasing or decreasing them, and the reappraisals can be challenged.
A letter to the editor printed in The Athens NEWS last week from John Buswell stated that the value of his property went up by $60,000.
Buswell, who lives on Fisher Road in Alexander Township, wrote, “The only property changes that have occurred is a fence that I put up for my dogs, cost about $2,100 and a few weekends. So you can imagine I was pretty surprised when I saw a valuation of $257,000 on my house, when it was previously $197,000. My neighbors’ properties didn’t go up this much.”
A letter to the editor from Eleanor Barstow of Athens printed in today’s Athens NEWS states that five rental properties she owns in Athens County increased by a value of $240,510.
“I will have to pass these increases on to my students, some of which are on student loans,” Barstow wrote in the letter.
Dave Owen, chief deputy auditor for the Athens County Auditor’s Office, said Friday that the fence that Buswell mentioned in his letter would have no impact on the property value.
Bob Drain of Tyler Technologies CLT Division supervises reappraisals for the Athens County Auditor’s Office and explained what he believes occurred at Buswell’s property. The individuals working on the reappraisals visit each property and look for changes in the properties, Drain explained. If the property owners are home, they will ask them questions about the buildings and ask if they can look around, he added.
At Buswell’s house, the reappraisers were told that Buswell had a fully finished basement in his home, Drain said. The basement was not reported as fully finished in the reappraisal six years ago, so that raised the value considerably, he said.
A finished basement can increase the value of a home by up to $40,000, he added.
If Buswell does not have a finished basement, he needs to inform the auditor’s office about this, Drain said. Anyone who has a question about the property valuation is invited to call the auditor’s office, he added.
Owen said that most problems can be resolved easily, and he also hopes to talk to people who have questions about their property values.
The values are based on improvements to the properties, the value of the properties around them, and, with rental and commercial properties, the income generated by rents at the properties.
The properties owned by the county auditor, employees of the auditor’s office and other county officials are checked early in the reappraisal process and then are rechecked, Drain said. Some people may question how much the properties owned by the county auditor or her employees increase, but Drain pointed out that he is not a county employee. His firm checks the property values for several southern Ohio counties and always checks and rechecks the values for county officials to make sure they are done correctly.
PROPERTY VALUES are continuing to rise steadily in Athens County, according to Owen. He and Drain both said that while in other parts of the country the property values rose sharply in recent years and then also fell sharply in the last year, Athens County has always remained steady.
Drain said that each property is different and that some properties fell in value in the county, some stayed the same, and some increased by wide margins. The average increase in property value was 10-12 percent, Drain said, but he stressed that the change was different with each property.
Owen pointed out that farmland value increased significantly in the county because that land has been selling at a higher price than the market value.
Drain acknowledged that many places in the county have seen property values stay stagnant and not rise. Areas such as Glouster, Trimble and Jacksonville have remained stagnant, he said.
In Nelsonville, property values have stayed stable and risen, he said.
Athens City School District properties continue to rise in value, although there are differences throughout the district, he added.
Many of the rural parts of the county have not had many sales, but the rising value of the farmland has had an impact in rural areas, he added.
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