The Virginian-Pilot is reporting that Norfolk real estate assessments will average a 16% increase, the fourth year in a row we have experienced double-digit increases. Commercial assessments are expected to increase 6%. The neighborhood-by-neighborhood increases are shown here.
Any reduction in the rate, currently at $1.27 per $100, below $1.20 will result in another windfall for commercial property owners. If residential property owners are to stay even, the rate will have to drop to $1.09. I don’t expect to see that kind of reduction in the rate, but it would be nice.
Come on, Norfolk council. Surprise me 🙂
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Your fiscal conservatisim is commendable but still a Democrat eh 🙂
Prince William Fairfax and Loudoun all saw flat or slight decreases in assessments
Prince William and Fairfax have proposed holding the rates steady while Loudoun has proposed an increase!!!
In their Defense Loudoun is still growing and has skyrocketing infrasturucture costs to take care of
Currently being assessed at .96 per 100, our Fairfax County house still went up $30,000. and yes, it was the house, not the land, this time. That’s considered flat?
The link Vivian provided for the Norfolk neighborhoods is very, very interesting, yet, it doesn’t make much sense to me. Ballentine E & W were raised to 15% & 16%, but Ghent is also at 16%. Now, I grew up in Ballentine Place and River Forest Shores (23%), so I know the neighborhoods and wonder why Ghent’s assessment is so much lower than RFS?
So let me get this straight: Norfolk’s property assessor thinks that Norfolk residentially-zoned real estate is on average 16% more valuable than it was last year, but the city council has to provide massive monetary incentives in the order of millions of dollars to persuade developers to think its worth building residential- or mixed-use development projects like the Granby Tower there because otherwise the property wouldn’t be in demand. That’s about the size of it, right?
I don’t think Vivian’s position on this is contrary to her partisan identity as a democrat. Not only does Norfolk make me scratch my head sometimes as a tax-payer, but it also plays into other important issues like affordable housing and aging communities. I’m a young, well-educated professional who grew up in Hampton Roads, and I think it’s pretty crummy that a lot of folks my age who might otherwise want to come back to Hampton Roads after college or grad school find ourselves squeezed out of the housing market when we consider our student loans and other financial obligations.
But hey, thanks for the public education, guys, we’re sorry we’ll have to make it work for us in a different community.
A big mistake in my previous post. FFXCO tax rate is now .89, not .96.
But, while I’m here, I will say that about 10 years ago we had a condo at Va. Beach, rate there was 1.22, rate here was 1.23, We’ve had a sizeable drop since then. Makes sense that cities have higher rates than counties, I suppose, what with road maintenance and all.
Carole – the rate in VB is now 99 cents. As for the differences in rates across the city – here’s my take on it (based on my experience on the Real Estate Review Board):
Since 1978, the requirement is that real estate be assessed at fair market value. Norfolk uses neighborhood sales to determine FMV. So, if there were a bunch of sales in Ballentine or River Forest Shores, the assessor’s office has pretty good data on increases in value (although I have to say that the data is a bit dated). In neighborhoods where there are few sales, the assessor’s office has to look at similar neighborhoods to come up with the rate of increase. Now, you know that Norfolk’s neighborhoods are pretty unique – Ghent and Ballentine are nothing alike – so this method has its flaws. But clearly, changes in value – even without sales – took place. My own neighborhood had an average increase of 14%, and I don’t think we had a single sale. (I need to talk to the assessor’s office about what neighborhoods were used as similar.)
anonymous – I understand your frustration with housing prices, but I think that is true almost everywhere, not just in Hampton Roads. It was certainly true when I bought my first house back in 1983.
As for my fiscal conservatism – working for yourself will do that for you 🙂
Vivian, I applaud your activism in this, but the cart is before the horse. When voters get to choose between those who would lower the rate and those who wouldn’t, who wins in Norfolk?
In Virginia Beach, Meyera always wins, along with everyone else who spends every surplus and they defeat people who cry for lowering the real estate tax rate the most.
The cart’s before the horse in this issue. First you elect people who campaign on cutting the rate. then, magically, the rate will get cut.
Actually, we’ve not had such a choice in Norfolk, with the single exception of Barbara Saunders, who ran in the smallest ward in the city. I agree that the cart is before the horse, but in this case, we have to get candidates to actually run on cutting the rate.
In Virginia Beach, several incumbents were defeated in the city council races in May 06, Brian. I share your cynicism about these newcomers leading a push to lower the tax rates, however; my impression of each of the newcomers after meeting them was that they wanted to run for city council because they thought it would be like sitting at the cool kids table in the lunchroom. None of them had anything worth listening to when it came to any of the city’s problems: run-away assessments, development around Oceana, difficulty finding new police recruits, and traffic congestion on the major thoroughfares (the Oceanfront gets all of the attention but God help you if you have a heart attack in the afternoon on a Wednesday and VB General on First Colonial Road is the closest hospital, the last half mile will take fifteen minutes and the traffic will end up being harder to bypass than the congestion in your left ventrical).