THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502190093
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3A EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: Short : 34 lines
Taxes in Currituck County are assessed every eight years.
The county contracts an appraiser about two years before the new tax assessments are set. State law requires that property assessments are set at 100 percent of the fair market value - the price homeowners can fairly expect to get for their property when they try to sell it.
The appraiser usually uses recent sales in the surrounding area to determine assessments and fair market value. The last assessments were set in 1989. The next reassessments for Currituck will be set in 1997.
Countywide, assessments run at about 93 percent of the fair market value, according to a state study. However, in Corolla Light, the values on the properties belonging to those who have filed the complaint run an average of nearly 15 percent higher or 115 percent of the fair market value, according to a comparison of sales between 1987 and 1989 and the assessments listed in county tax records.
State officials said it is not unusual to have a wide disparity in the values, especially several years after the assessments were done.
In Hyde County, a county with a similar mix of rural and beach resort property, assessments were done in 1987. Those are currently at 66 percent of fair market value. New assessments are due out this year.
Throughout the region assessments range from 100 percent of fair market value in Dare County to 83 percent of market value in Pasquotank County. by CNB