4 days ago
Property assessments up 7.5% in Daviess
Inflation is causing property assessments in Daviess County to soar.
Rachel Pence Foster, Daviess County's property valuation administrator, says property assessments are up 7.5% this year.
That's the sixth straight year that assessments have grown by 5% or more.
And the most one-year increase in decades.
If nothing changes, city and county governments and school districts will get an increase in the amount of taxes collected without raising their rates.
And home owners will pay more in taxes.
PVAs are required to assess property at its fair-market valued.
They do not set tax rates.
The county is divided into four quarters and one quarter has its property reassessed each year.
This year, it was the area south of Parrish Avenue and east of Frederica St.
Foster said homes in that area may have seen an increase of 10%, 22%, 35% or more.
'This new assessment was an increase over a four-year period and the numbers in this article are for the entire county as a whole for one year,' she said. 'Three-fourths of the county and city was not in the re-assessment area. The increases also include all new home sales.'
When property is sold, it is reassessed at the sale price.
And new buildings are assessed when they are completed.
In dollar terms, assessments this year increased by $594 million.
That's up from $436.28 million last year.
The total value of all taxable property in Daviess County is now $8.5 billion.
That's up from $7.89 billion last year.
Realtors say the problem is a shortage of homes on the market for the past five or more years.
Supply and demand means houses will sell for more money with demand for them rising.
Residential property up 8.1%Foster said residential property values were up 8.1% or $412.9 million to a total of $5.5 billion.
Last year, it increased by $320.99 million.
Foster said the value of commercial property was up $151.5 million — 6.9% — to $2.3 billion.
Last year, it was up $33.7 million.
And the value of agricultural property was up $29.7 million or 5.2% to a total of $600.7 billion.
Last year, it was up $81.57 million.
The number of $1 million — or more — homes continues to climb.
In 2021, there were only six.
Last year, there were 11.
And this year, Foster said, there are 19.
That's just the homes, not any land other than yards.
Kentucky allows people who are 65 and older or disabled to lower the assessed value of their homes by $49,100 under the Homestead Exemption Act.
The amount increases every two years.
Foster said this year there are 11,023 homes that have qualified for the exemption — up from 10,820 last year.
That breaks down as 10,207 for age and 816 for disability.
Foster said the exemption lowered the value of those homes by $534.9 million.
That's up from $495.8 million last year.
Government buildings, churches and certain nonprofits don't pay taxes.
That took $1.75 billion off the tax rolls — down from $1.78 billion last year.
People can check their assessments — and their neighbor's — on the PVA's website —
The site also has a tax calculator that lets people see roughly what their property taxes will be this year — if the rates don't change.
