19-04-2025
Saint Albans property values soar in city-wide reappraisal, leaving some locals stunned
SAINT ALBANS, Vt. (ABC22 FOX44) — A city-wide reappraisal in Saint Albans has some locals in shock over the new sticker price of their properties, with some more than doubling in value according to the city's preliminary list.
Chip Sawyer, the city's Director of Planning and Development, says the reappraisal, which was mandated by the state, will now be matching property values from sales data from the current market— which may explain the financial hike. The city's last reappraisal was in 2011, and it has been using that data set up until this year.
'If you look at what houses are selling for in the city, they're selling for at least twice as much as they might have in 2011. And that's what we expected would happen with the reappraisal, is that homes are now more valuable than they were back then and so the Grand List would reflect that,' he said.
Some locals have been taking to Facebook to express their concerns, with one post getting roughly 190 responses as of Friday. Sawyer says, while he understands the concerns, he wants people to know that an increase does not necessarily mean people will be paying twice as much in taxes.
'As the Grand List goes up the tax rates go down. So, your property value might be doubling on the Grand List, but your taxes won't be doubling because the tax rate is going down.'
James Levy, a Saint Albans resident and business owner, says while he wishes the value increases were less 'traumatic,' they make sense given the current real estate market.
'Would I have been happier if it were a bit lower, certainly… but I believe the process was a fair one and that's what counts. This one was probably the best I've experienced in the last 40 or 50 years,' he said.
Sawyer says people can reach out to the city to file an official grievance or can contact its partner Tyler Technologies for a property data follow-up.
You can find contact information and more resources here.
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