Why Have Property Taxes Increased So Much in 2007 in North Fulton?
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Johns Creek Real Estate, Milton Real Estate, Roswell Real Estate
The short answer is because there is a new sherrif in town.
First, let me say that I feel like I have dodged a bullet this year. My property taxes – more accurately, my assessed value – did not change from 2006. However, I can hear the Fulton County Tax Assessor reloading and I can feel the litte red dot from his range finder on my house when I sleep at night.
There are about 11,500 homes in Milton and 82% of them were reassessed this year, the highest percentage in all of Fulton County. In Alpharetta, Roswell and Johns Creek, about 60% of properties were reassessed and in Sandy Springs only 25% were reassessed. Sandy Springs residents…look out next year.
New Sherrif
Historically, Fulton County has reassessed about a third of all homes each year. This pattern has kept the county on a three year rolling cycle for keeping the values current. The historical problem, though, was that the values have been all over the board even if they were adjusted every three years. This lead to wholesale changes in the Fulton County Tax Assessors office last year and the hiring of a new chief appraiser, Burt Manning.
Manning’s focus is on cleaning up the problem and the only way he sees to do that is to reassess everything in the county with consistent criteria. This year his office reassessed 55% of all property in Fulton County.
Residents in Milton have seen their assessed values increase as much as 20% over last year and the average across North Fulton is about a 13% increase. I’ve had clients call me with questions and concern about the increase and they have indicated a desire to appeal. Remember that the only grounds you can appeal on is taxability, uniformity and value.
The increase is really caused by two factors that combined to make the situation worse. First, values in many parts of the county were way to low – or the assessor’s office was just too slow in increasing them. It was five years after I moved into my house that the assessor showed my “fair market value” to be anywhere close to my purchase price.
Second is that there has been so much growth in North Fulton in the past 5–7 years. Manning has stated accurately that sale prices continue to go up in North Fulton and increases in property assessments are “part of living in a desirable community.”
Since I have lived in North Fulton since 1999, my assessed value has increased 60%. Remember, my value did NOT go up in 2007; I’ve got that to look forward to. I estimate that the market value of my home has increased just about the same amount, so I don’t feel so bad in paying the taxes that I’m charged.
However, next year I’m probably going to be hit with about a 15% increase and my property is surely not going to increase 15% in one year, particularly in a somewhat flat real estate market. My taxes will most definitely reflect a truer market value next year; the reason that my taxes will have gone up disproportionately to my home value is because they started out artifically low.
So What Does All This Mean?
If our taxes are going up, where does all the new tax revenue go? First of all, Fulton County’s 2007 budget shows about a 2% increase in property tax revenues from 2006. In 2006, though, the County brought in about $15M MORE than it had budgeted. I suspect 2007 will bring in more, too. Even if it doesn’t, your share will definitely be higher - and someone else’s proportionaltely lower.
Do I hear distant cries from the North Fulton woods for a new, separate county? Would it be ironic that in an effort to correct the problems in the assessor’s office, Manning comes in and does the right thing, but in the process creates more animosity between the residents of North Fulton and the county government. Many residents of North Fulton will feel, rightly or wrongly, that they were targeted.
Additionally, most taxing juristictions reduce the tax rate (the millage rate) each year to compensate for the increased tax base. This allows the jurisdictions to stay “revenue neutral” and for your taxes to remain the same even though your assessed value increased. For instance, Fulton County is reducing its millage rate from 11.407 to 10.281 mills (dollars per $1000 of assessed value).
|
City |
2007 Millage Rate |
| Alpharetta | 6.6 |
| Roswell | 6.087 |
| Johns Creek | 4.614 |
| Milton | 4.731 |
| Duluth | 5.191 |
| Suwanee | 5.77 |
The City of Milton, on the other hand, is not reducing its millage rate. By statute both Milton and Johns Creek can set and keep the millage rate at 4.731 mills for the first three years. Johns Creek is actually at 4.614 mills, but the point is that Johns Creek is not lowering theirs either. Both these cities are going to get a bit of a probably much needed windfall as a result of Fulton’s reassessments. These two new cities can use the extra revenue to build reserves, offset startup costs and start to build needed infrastructure.
Finally, when purchasing a new home, most prospective buyers ask at some point what the taxes are. (Buyers from New Jersey are always amazed at how low Georgia taxes are. I could double them and they’d still think they were low!). Make sure that when you look at the previous year’s tax bill for a property that you are interested in that it either has or has not been reassessed by Fulton County. The only way to do that is to look at the history of assessed value for the house, not just the previous year.
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