PROPERTY VALUES RISE 4.2 PERCENT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 17, 1992                   TAG: 9201170362
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
PROPERTY VALUES RISE 4.2 PERCENT
Residential property values in Roanoke County increased 4.2 percent in the latest reassessment, a smaller increase than in the previous year, County Assessor John Willey said.
That means a typical house assessed at $80,000 in 1991 would be assessed at $83,360 this year.
At the county's current rate of $1.13 per $100 of assessed value, the tax bill on that house would increase $38, to $942.
Of course, the rate of increase or decrease of individual assessments varies, depending on the neighborhood, the condition of the property and other factors.
Last year, residential property values in the county increased 5.9 percent. Since then, "The number of [home] sales has decreased somewhat, but sales prices are increasing somewhat," Willey said.
Property owners in Roanoke will get their latest assessments at the end of this month.
Nearly 38,500 assessment notices have been mailed to property owners in the past two weeks. The notices show the dates and times that Willey and his staff will be available to meet with property owners to discuss assessments.
Property owners also can take complaints about their assessments to the Board of Equalization, which begins holding hearings March 1.
Commercial and industrial property values increased 3.9 percent in the latest reassessment.
The county's tax base continues to be about 84 percent residential and 16 percent commercial and industrial.
As a result of this reassessment, the total value of residential, commercial and industrial real estate in the county increased $155.7 million. Of that, $35.8 million was due to new construction, Willey said.
Based on last year's sales, real estate in Roanoke County is assessed, on average, at 95 percent of its fair-market value, Willey said.
The "coefficient of dispersion," a statistical measure of how much individual assessments vary from the average, was 6 percent. That means about two-thirds of the real estate in the county is assessed at between 89 percent and 101 percent of its fair market value.
"We know we're slightly out of kilter with certain properties" that are assessed at more than their fair-market value, Willey said. But this year's sales might show that the fair-market values of those houses are catching up with their assessed values.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB