Sales remain steady in county, despite health crisis, says chief appraiser
The Gilmer County Board of Assessors approved submission of the real property portion of the 2020 tax digest when meeting Wednesday, July 15.
Chief Appraiser Theresa Gooch said a total of 802 qualified sales took place during the digest year.
“Countywide, we look at the sales every year and adjust accordingly based on market sales. For 2020, we’ve seen a steady increase in sales prices. We still had a very strong market in Gilmer County,” noted Gooch.
The entire digest is expected to be submitted to the department of revenue later this month.
“The board of commissioners and board of education are both in the process of setting their millage rates. I have a tentative date with the DOR for Aug. 26 for final approval,” said Tax Commissioner Becky Marshall.
The 40-percent value of the gross countywide digest, before exemptions are deducted, is $1.73 billion, which includes real and personal property,
motor vehicles, mobile homes, timber and heavy equipment.
The 100-percent value number is approximately $4.3 billion before exemptions, according to the county finance department.
A school tax homestead exemption for property owners age 65 and over remained unchanged for this year after the assessor board first decided to exclude unattached structures such as garages and sheds from the exemption, then reversed that decision and requested a final, state-level opinion as to whether or not further changes should be made to the exemption. Gooch said that opinion hasn’t been received yet.
“We are still waiting. We’re told that we will get one, but with the impact of everything, it may still be delayed,” she added.
Some appeals filed this year are still outstanding, noted Gooch last week.
“We just submitted the digest to the tax commissioner for her to review and send down to the DOR, so we are still early in the appeal process. The value in dispute number (for appeals) will change because we are still in the process of working appeals,” she said.
The total appeal count numbered 576.
“We saw less (appeals) than we have in previous years, but we were open to the public the entire time, from May 1 to the appeal deadline of July 6,” Gooch noted. “We were available for them to come in person or call.”
So far, the COVID-19 health crisis has not had an adverse affect on property sales in the county, Gooch said.
“We’re still processing a steady amount of sales transactions.
It’s a little early for us to tell,
but if there are any impacts we’ll make that adjustment accordingly next year. We’ll run those values all the way up to Jan. 1 so we get a full look at the year,” she added.
Approximately 501 property sales have been listed as qualified since Jan. 1 of this year, Gooch said.
“The appraisers have not reviewed those sales. That is typically done after February 2021. We typically start the qualifying process once we have all the deeds entered, which will be February 2021,” she added.
Board members Gary Engel, Bill Logan, John Williamson and Tom Porter also approved this year’s tax-exempt property digest at the July 15 meeting.
That digest, which covers tax-exempt properties in the county such as churches, nonprofit organizations and cemeteries, amounts to $332.5 million.