Tax Assessor Explains Land Value Changes

By REBECCA HAZEN
News Editor

Chief Appraiser at the Dade County Tax Assessors Office, Paula Duvall, spoke during the Thursday, July 1 county update about land values, and how the Tax Assessors Office came to the decision to change the value numbers.

“These were the largest increases that took place across the county. The last time there was land value changes was 2016,” Duvall said. “The market has steadily increased throughout those years.”

The Assessors first look at the median actual number, which tells them how well their values are lining up with what has sold in the county. Georgia taxes are at 40 percent, so they want that number to be as close to .40 as possible.

For rural land, the Georgia Department of Revenue allows between .36 and a .42 to be a passing ratio. Before the Tax Assessors made any changes, the land ratio was at .35.

The second thing that was looked at was the coefficient of dispersion (COD), which measures uniformity. The Department of Revenue standard for COD should not be above a .20. Dade County’s COD was at a .24.

“We were starting to see a pattern that our values are not in line with the market,” Duvall said.

The third item that was looked at was the Price Related Differential (PRD), which should be between .98 and 1.10.

The number for Dade County’s land properties was 1.19.

“This is what we pull for every classification of property,” Duvall explained.

Once the Tax Assessors made changes, the median number was .040, the COD was .125 and the PRD was 1.02.

The new, current median for rural land with houses on it is .40, the COD is .13 and the PRD is 1.03. The new, current median for urban land is 0.40, the COD is .10 and PRD is .98.

“We are seeing evidence that what we did made the difference. We fixed the problem,” Duvall said.

Also during the county update, County Executive Ted Rumley said that the storm shelter building for the Dade County Sports Complex will be ready for shipment, and the pouring of the concrete pad should be worked on within the next two weeks.

Rumley said that construction work on Morganville Ridge Road is going well.

“We are ahead of schedule. If the weather works with us, we are moving right along. We are pleased with how things are going,” Rumley said.

Rumley encouraged everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Some people don’t feel like they want to get vaccinated and that’s your business, but there’s no reason why you can’t be vaccinated. There are plenty of businesses giving the vaccine,” Rumley said.

Dade County has seen 5 cases in the past two weeks, for a total of 1,239 COVID-19 cases. The number of cases can be found at https://dph.georgia.gov/covid-19-daily-status-report.

“We’ve actually gone down in numbers, which is from mistaken addresses that were given to Dade County that might have been on the state line,” Rumley said.

The county update is broadcasted online on Thursdays at 3 p.m. The broadcast can be found on the County’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.