‘Vast majority’ of Cobb homeowners facing higher assessments

The “vast majority” of Cobb County homeowners will be getting higher property tax assessments this year.

That’s what Stephen White, the chief appraiser for the Cobb Board of Tax Asessors, said this week as his office begins sending out assessment notices.

As we noted in a previous post about a projected 13 percent increase in the Cobb tax digest, much of that is due to a “red-hot” real estate market.

A related factor in determining the assessment of a home is the relative value of home sales in a neighborhood or area.

In an interview with Cobb government public information officer Ross Cavitt (video below), White said those assessments are going out by the end of this week and early next week.

Of more than 240,000 residential properties his office has assessed, White said around 180,000 of them will have higher assessments than 2022, when Cobb had a record tax digest of $50 billion.

Since 2018, White said the average home sale in Cobb has grown by around 50K a year, from $289K to $453K in 2022.

“The market has been really, really hot, so the increases can be rather large,” White said.

He encouraged homeowners to go to the Cobb Tax Asessor’s website to look at home sales in their area, “and that will help you feel if our value is appropriate or not.”

The assessments are valued at what the assessor’s office thinks a home could have been sold for on Jan. 1, 2023.

“The value you’re receiving for your assessment in May, we’re looking at sales that occurred in the 2022 calendar year,” White said.

Some home sales have tapered off in early 2023, and the state is offering some tax relief in the form of a one-time reduction in assessment value of $18,000 for most tax levies.

Cobb Tax Commissioner Carla Jackson said that’s called the Property Tax Relief Grant, and for property owners in unincorporated Cobb that grant would be applied to what they would pay for the county general fund and fire fund and Cobb County School District taxes.

The Cobb Board of Education next week is expected to adopt a fiscal year 2024 budget with a proposed millage rate cut.

The school millage rate produces the largest portion of a Cobb homeowners’ property tax bill, and those age 62 and over (except in the city of Marietta) can apply for a senior exemption from paying school taxes.

White said homeowners who wish to appeal their assessments have 45 days to do so from the mailing date, and the deadline to do so is included in their assessment.

He said around 1-2 percent of homeowners appeal their assessments.

Those appeals are reviewed by his office, which issues a recommendation to the Cobb Board of Tax Assessors, an appointed body that decides those appeals should be changed or not.

“If they’re still unhappy, they can go to the Board of Equalization, which would be later on in the year,” White said of the citizen-appointed body that is the ultimate venue for property tax determinations. It is separate from the tax assessor’s office and members are chosen by members of a Cobb grand jury.

Property tax bills will be mailed in October, after appeals are determined and when the Cobb County fiscal year 2024 budget has gone into effect.

Related:

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• Cobb tax digest expected to grow by 13 percent in 2023
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• Cobb ethics board dismisses complaint against Richardson
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