The Wake County property tax is a form of revenue for the Wake County government. For people planning to relocate to Wake County, it is important to understand how theWake County property tax is calculated. It is the responsibility of the County Revenue Department for listing, appraising and assessing all personal property and registered motor vehicles within Wake. As most homeowners know by now, Wake County recently reassessed property tax values. Real estate groups have supported Hunt’s ascension in state politics. Officials can look up landlords through the Register of Deeds and levy Wake County property tax. And when you see a Wake real estate advertisement saying, below tax value, be wary about interpreting that as an indication of value. When you see a Wake County real estate advertisement you now know that such a claim is irrelevant for interpreting the market value due to this Wake County property tax.
As most homeowners know, Wake County property tax values have been reassessed recently. A few things in regards to this re-evaluation are as follows. Property values are reassessed every 8 years in Wake County. This makes for some sticker shock since the average increase in value is 43%. The County is considering a change to re-evaluating every 4 years however there is significant cost in performing this herculean task. County assessors broke Wake County down to 4200 separate areas for purpose of the re-evaluation. These areas were used to group similar properties in order to use mass comparisons. The property values have already been updated on the Wake County property tax website.
Historically, when the new budgets come out in June, the county has decided to make a change such that this revenue is neutral. This means that if the county does not need additional money in the budget, then they will adjust the Wake County property tax rate in such a way that accounts for the higher property values. If you want to know how and when this change in property values will affect your mortgage payment, contact your lender. If the lender holds money in escrow to pay the Wake County property tax for you then it may vary as to when and if they need to collect additional money from you. In theory, the new property value represents what your home would sell for in the open market. However, as most real estate professionals can tell you, that is typically not the case.
The new Wake County property tax value should be closer to your homes fair market value now than it was last year but the gap will continue to change with time. There is an appeal process in place to allow homeowners the opportunity to challenge their new assessment. The County does make mistakes and they provide you with the opportunity to correct them. There is a small window of time to make your appeal so educate yourself if you think there might be an error in your new Wake County property tax bill. For property in one of Wake County’s 14 cities or towns the property tax bill will include both municipal property tax and the Wake County property tax.
