New Kent Charles City Chronicle

News for New Kent County and Charles City County, Virginia | March 28, 2024

Overall New Kent land values rise despite recession

By Community Member | February 4, 2010 2:05 pm

Preliminary results of New Kent County’s recent real estate reassessment shows an overall 7.4 percent increase in land values over the previous year, but most residential properties exhibited a decline.

County revenue commissioner Laura Ecimovic unveiled results to date before the county’s Board of Supervisors during the board’s Jan. 27 work session.

Ecimovic said about two-thirds of homeowners will see a decrease in value when assessment notices begin arriving in the mail, possibly as soon as next week. For the other one-third, values stay pretty much the same. But there will be some homeowners who experience an increase, mostly due to incorrect assessments in the past, she said.

All totaled for now, land in New Kent is valued at almost $2.96 billion. The figure includes almost $67 million in improvements and close to $8 million in new parcels. Ecimovic still has close to 350 commercial parcels to audit before determining final figures.

The highest percent of decrease in residential assessments occurred in homes valued in excess of $400,000, she told supervisors.

“Brickshire probably went down in value more than any other neighborhood,” she said, adding there are now 80 designated neighborhoods in New Kent.

Helping account for the overall increase in property values, she said, are a number of large landholdings that were sold for $10 million or more and previously assessed at only $1 million. Close to 100 parcels in all, mostly commercial, were found to have been “under-assessed,” she said. Those owners could be in for a bit of sticker shock when notices arrive.

Reassessment notices this year will include something new — a card listing a detailed description of a property so the owner can make comparisons and determine if any information is incorrect.

“We want [property owners] to see what their assessment is and that it’s based in fact,” Ecimovic said. “If it’s not correct, I want to correct it.”

For the two weeks following notices being mailed out, Ecimovic’s office plans to accept corrections and schedule appeals if the reassessment is contested. After that, a month is to be set aside for her office to hear appeals and possibly resolve matters.

Appeals that are unresolved then go before the Board of Equalization, a group of county residents nominated by supervisors and appointed by a New Kent Circuit Court judge. If the BOE outcome is not to the property owner’s satisfaction, an appeal can be filed as a last resort in county circuit court.