WILDWOOD — The city will undergo a property reassessment this year that will go on the books in time for the 2013 tax year.
City Commissioners directed city tax assessor Jason Hesley to conduct a property reassessment in order to find out what the properties in Wildwood are really worth.
The commissioners voted to bond $415,000 to pay for an updated tax map and in-house reassessment.
“We want a tax base that is in line with current market values rather than defend property tax appeals that are out of line by six to seven years,” Hesley said.
The revaluation will help determine, based on the 2011 tax levy, what the local tax rate will be and what homeowners here will pay in municipal, school and county taxes.
However, a reduction in a property’s assessment doesn’t necessarily mean a tax break for the owner. That depends on the property’s change in value relative to the change to all the other values in the city, and on the budget next year.
Wildwood has more than 5,000 residential and commercial properties that went through a revaluation in 2004 and went on the city’s tax rolls in 2005. However, that was before an economic downturn and failing housing market.
According to the county, a town should be assessed at 100 percent of market value.
In 2004, the city's ratable base was $544 million. After the revaluation, it jumped to about $1.7 billion. As of 2011, the city's value is at $1.57 billion.
Hesley explained that a reassessment will be in place of a revaluation. The difference, he said was that a reval is done by an outside firm and typically costs about $78 to $80 per line item.
With 5,518 properties on its books, the cost could be about $441,000.
“An in-house assessment will save about $100,000,” Hesley said.
“Plus, the last time there was a reval there was a lot of dissatisfaction about the outside agency that did the work,” Hesley added. “This time there will be Wildwood employees, people that know the area, that are doing the work.”
Hesley said his office likely would need to hire about five to 10 people, which includes field inspectors, data collectors and possibly licensed appraisers for assistance with the commercial properties, to complete the work.
Neighboring North Wildwood and their tax assessor Louis Belasco, along with two full-time inspectors and one who worked part time, completed an in-house reassessment in 2011 of their 7,800 commercial and residential properties.
North Wildwood had estimated the cost of a revaluation firm could run between $800,000 and $1 million. However, Belasco said he and a small staff did the work for $100,000.
North Wildwood’s last revaluation was in 2006 and relied on the real estate prices of 2005, set during the real-estate boom, according to county tax administrator George R. Brown. Prior to the 2006 revaluation, the town had not undergone a revaluation since 1989.
However, Hesley said Wildwood's reassessment would be more labor-intensive than North Wildwood's recent reassessment because so many years have passed since Wildwood's properties were last inspected, and there has been much new construction since 2004. The city's properties include 271 vacant lots, 4,315 residential sites, 803 commercial properties and 129 exempt properties, which could be anything from a playground to a church.
Additionally, Hesley said the bond covers the cost to have the city’s tax map updated.
In order to move forward, City Commissioners first had to go to the county for approval for an in-house reassessment. They now are waiting on state approval. If the project is approved, work should begin in the spring.
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