News

Mills River, Fletcher drive growth in property values

An Ingles superstore in Mills River, which opened in 2013, is valued at $7.1 million in the new 2015 appraisal.

By Bill Moss, Published: March 1, 2015

Northern Henderson County drove strong growth of property values countywide in the new appraisal numbers that will determine tax bills for homeowners, landowners and businesses for the next four years.

Mills River, which has landed the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and Empire Distributing in the past two years, led the way with growth of percent followed by Fletcher with growth of 4.5 percent, according to figures released by Henderson County Tax Assessor Stan Duncan. The Fletcher Fire District had by far the highest growth rate among fire districts, at 10.2 percent.
Countywide, real property values rose by a projected 5.35 percent, to a value of $11 billion.
"If I look at that, the effect (of growth) is in Mills River and Fletcher," Duncan said.
After the northern Henderson County towns, Flat Rock had the highest growth, at 2.73 percent; followed by Hendersonville at 1.66 percent and Laurel Park, at 1 percent. Saluda property in Henderson County dipped by a quarter percent.
In Hendersonville, the special tax district that covers downtown grew by .82 percent while the Seventh Avenue tax district dropped by .28 percent.
"Part of that is we've had some demolitions on Seventh Avenue," Duncan said.

Mills River to review rate

Mills River Town Manager Jeff Wells said he expected to get the town's appraisal information this week.
"We've gotten a little indication that we were coming out up at the top," Wells said. "That's a good sign of the growth in the town."
As soon as the town gets the actual number, the council will go to work on calculating a tax rate.
"We'll put that (assessment number) in our revenue projection and take that along with other revenues that we get and see where that gets us at this point," he said. "We'll look at our expenses and see what we want to do with our tax rate this year."
The northern Henderson County hot streak shows no sign of cooling.
On Tuesday, the Partnership for Economic Development announced that a manufacturer of parts for medical devices would locate at Broadpointe Industrial Park in Mills River, making a $27 million investment and creating 172 jobs
While the reappraisal broadly showed gains from the 2011 values, a look back one cycle further to 2007 shows that real property values have not rebounded to that boom level.
"We're still not where we were," Duncan said.
In the four-year reappraisal cycle, the assessor puts new values on new and existing homes, buildings and land. A house built in 2013, even though new on the books, would have been assessed for tax purposes at the 2011 values.
"We're frozen at that level," he said. "It wasn't appraised at what it was worth. If you built a house in 2013, we had a value based on what it was worth if had been built in 2011" and based on the values at the time. Now, that home will be assessed at market value on Jan. 1, 2015.
The four-year reappraisal cycle applies to real property such as homes, buildings and land but not motor vehicles, business personal property (such as office equipment and factory machines) and public utilities, which are assessed every year.

Final number is weeks away

The numbers released this week are not final because the assessor does not know at this point how many exemptions landowners will apply for and what value that will shave off the total levy, now how many will appeal values. An appeal if successful would cause an assessment to go up or down.

The Green River Fire District showed the second largest projected increase among fire districts, at 5.7 percent.
"Green River was basically on land," Duncan said. "We know there will be some adjustments for PUV." PUV, or present use value, provides for tax relief for land used for the commercial production of crops, horticulture or forestry products. "PUV is as much as a 98 percent tax reduction. That's a biggie. We tried to estimate what we think is at risk" from valid present-use value applications. "They have 30 days to come in and make application for PUV."
A property owner may appeal the new assessed value based on an opinion that it is below market value or "appraised inequitably as it relates to market value of comparable properties." It cannot be appealed, the assessor says, based on percentage change from the previous value, actual construction or historic cost, the amount of taxes due, ability to pay, insurance value or salvage value.
Property owners have 30 days to file an appeal from the date of the assessment notice. An appeal first receives an informal review by the staff. Appeals from there go to the Henderson County Board of Equalization and Review, which is appointed by the Board of Commissioners.
The Board of Commissioners and the towns must calculate and publicize a revenue neutral rate before they adopt the tax rate for the 2015-16 budget year.