Virginia Beach drops their rate 3.39 cents, to $.99 per $100 of assessed value, Chesapeake is looking at 12 cents, to $1.11, Portsmouth is planning on 8 cents, to $1.36. and Suffolk’s proposed budget reflects a 7 cent reduction, to $1.01. They are meeting today on this.
And Norfolk has basically decided on 7 cents, bringing the rate down to $1.28 per $100 of assessed value, still the second highest in the region. Councilmen Randy Wright and Don Williams have said they will vote against the budget unless it drops 20 cents, but Wright is now saying that with the deferral program, he’s willing to change this to 10 cents.
I understand it taxes money to run the city but a cut of 7 cents seems a little low to me. I’d like to see council meet the taxpayers in the middle, given the average assessment increase of 28.5%. That would mean a rate of about $1.20. I don’t expect that to happen, though.
The article indicates that some 84% of Norfolk taxpayers will qualify for the deferral program, which in and of itself, should tell you something about how much they need to reduce the rate further. The requirements are shown here. Of the requirements, the one that stands out the most is that 84% of the people in Norfolk have household income of less than $100,000.
We need more relief.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I did not realize that your RE tax rates were that high!
I justed checked yours – is it only 81.8 cents?????? My goodness, I may need to move 😉 (Of course, I couldn’t afford to live there 😦 )
Yes, the rate is low, but if I sold my house today, I could not afford to buy it back …
Welcome to NoVa logic
Not just NoVA. Same is true here. I’m in the same boat as Ingrid – if I sold, I couldn’t afford to buy it back. My little house is easily worth 2 1/2 to 3 times what I paid for it 6 years ago. The assessment on it has more than doubled. (And because of the lag, the real estate assessments in Norfolk are probably only 75-85% of FMV.)
Does Norfolk perform reassessment every year or every two years?
Every year. It’s really a constant process. Our long-time real estate assessor retired in April. He had a policy of using a cutoff date for looking at sales in determining FMV. As the result, the sales data used is about 18 months old by the time the assessment is effective. That’s why Norfolk can’t get closer to 100%, plus the real estate market has been so hot.
your invited