Baldwin County is in the midst of its second significant property revaluation since 2021, and thousands of local homeowners and property owners have received reassessment notices in recent weeks, many with increases in values of upwards of 50 percent.
The Baldwin County Tax Assessors Office undertook a revaluation of property in 2022, and Chief Tax Appraiser Wade Williams confirmed in an interview Monday afternoon that, of the 22,000plus real and personal property accounts in the county, reassessment notices on over 20,000 parcels were sent out in May, detailing higher values yet again.
Williams said the formula for establishing property values is complicated, but the bottom line explanation locally is the market.
“Why did the values go up in Baldwin County? Because of the market we have in Baldwin County,” he explained. “The reason the values went up is to reflect the market, because the market is what drives the value of your ownership on your house.”
Williams emphasized that the state establishes the guidelines and rules his department must follow.
“The Department of Revenue by law requires me to value properties according to the market, the cost, and the income, if applicable,” he said. In Georgia, property is assessed at 40% of its fair market value for tax purposes, and, per state law, Williams and his staff have some leeway but must maintain a sales ratio range between .36 and .44. When sale prices repeatedly exceed the value shown in the Tax Assessors office records, that creates the problem, according to the appraiser.
“We are still seeing that properties are selling for higher than what we have on the tax digest in representation of values,” Williams explained. “Since they are for the majority selling higher, it takes what is called my median and pushes it lower, and if it falls below .36, I am out of compliance with the State of Georgia and the audit department of the state of Georgia, which reflects on the board of rducation and their funding.”
Williams said his office is subject to periodic review by the Department of Revenue, and it is possible, if sale prices continue to outpace values on the local tax digest with no corrective action taken, the county can be designated as out of compliance.
That designation, the appraiser observed, can have a two-fold effect on the county, the first being a per-parcel penalty.
“It is $5 a parcel, if we are out of compliance,” he said, calculating that to be up to $110,000 a year for 22,000 parcels. “Whatever the Department of Revenue puts on Baldwin County, who is going to pay it? Property owners.”
Williams acknowledged that amount would be minimal with 22,000 property owners/ taxpayers but noted the penalties could be levied for several years until the county returned to compliance.
He said the second effect of non-compliance would be more costly.
“It would cost Baldwin County public utility payments,” he noted. Those companies – such as Georgia Power – would be able to take advantage of the county’s lower sales ratio figure.
“If I am out of compliance, the public utilities would be able to use my median, which is the number which is out of compliance, and that is the rate at which they would pay their taxes. That could cost the county way more than $110,000 a year in fines.”
A prime example of that effect would be Lake Sinclair property in Baldwin County, Williams suggested.
“There are over 450 lease lots on Lake Sinclair. The difference would be, rather than paying at 40%, they would be paying at whatever my median is (when out of compliance).”
Williams said the revaluation of properties this year was needed to avoid the possibility of being deemed out of compliance.
“I have to figure out what the market is doing, how can I recapture that difference between what is on our digest, that I refer to as ‘the book’, and what it is actually selling for in the market. That market reflection then has to be applied to all the properties in Baldwin County.”
Williams said that was accomplished by first assessing a 20% acrossthe- board increase in land values, even though he recognizes real estate has been selling even higher.
“I know that we are more than 20% low,” he asserted. “Twenty percent is a number I used as a leveling effect, to touch all pieces of land, no matter what the location was, this year. So, therefore, every owner of real property got some type of change of value, which caused the change of assessment notice.”
Secondly, Williams pointed out, residential property was addressed “because the residential market is driving the market more than agricultural, industrial, or commercial. But,” he added, “it has an effect on all those classes.”
The appraiser explained that various components of residential properties that affected their values were reviewed and adjusted as needed to help establish the updated values.
Williams knows the higher assessments have led to some negative feedback and noted that, as of Monday, approximately 400 appeals had been entered in the system. He added that he had close to 200 in his possession that had not been processed and stated that as long as an appeal is sent by mail has been postmarked by the deadline date of July 1, it will be considered timely received.
Recognizing that, should appeals on 5% or more of the parcels be received and unresolved by the end of August, the county would face problems in submitting its digest. Williams does not feel that is likely to happen. He is doubtful that 5% – approximately 1,110 – of affected parcels will be appealed.
“In 2022, I was pushing 1,400,” he recalled, acknowledging that a large number of the appeals that year came in the last week or in the mail a few days later.
Even with that possibility this week, Williams sees a difference from two years ago.
“A majority of people are looking at it, going ‘my neighbor sold, my cousin sold, my grandma and grandpa sold. I can sell it for more than this today in this market.’” Williams explained that, for a property owner who files an appeal and is not satisfied with the response his office gives, the most common next step is a hearing before the board of equalization. Scheduling of those hearings will start within the next 30 days, he said.