County reappraisal appeals down this year
The amount of appeals for county real estate tax reappraisals is down this year, according to the Forsyth County Tax Department.
The county does reappraisals every four years, using qualified real estate sales in an area and the condition of properties to estimate their value. If property owners feel that value is inaccurate, they can appeal. The informal appeals to the tax office are at a 20-year low with 3,072 appeals, which represents 1.93 percent of county property values. Formal appeals to the Board of Equalization and Review can be made until June 30 but, as of last Thursday, the board only had 468 appeals.
In 2013, when 90 percent of properties lost value due to the real estate downturn, there were 5,082 informal appeals and 2,590 formal appeals. The highest number of appeals in the last 20 years was actually in 2009 when there were 8,221 informal appeals and 3,517 formal ones.
County Tax Assessor John Burgiss said that he attributed the lower appeals this year to the rise in value that was found for 70 percent of properties and the fact that 62 percent of properties were within 10 percent of their previous value.
