Values need second look

Nestled amid rocky hills and thick woods on a 1-acre plot in Craigsville are a chicken coop and rickety house built in 1876. A bridge and an outbuilding were battered by flood. These occurrences represent the changes – perhaps one reads, “improvements” – made to the property since appraisers last made their way around Augusta County four years ago. So, naturally, assessors this time increased the value on John Sours’ land by almost 50 percent.

Elsewhere in Craigsville, Augusta’s poorest community, Irene Sprouse lives in a house built 50 years ago by her husband. When a garage for their lawnmower crumbled apart, they built a new one. So up went their assessment by almost 50 percent. To pay the increased tax bill – which will surely be higher even if supervisors adjust the tax rate to keep revenues level – Sprouse will have to scrape money from their Social Security payments, on which the couple live while she cares for her ailing husband.

These are among the stories The News Virginian is uncovering in its weeklong district-by-district investigation of Augusta’s reassessment, launched on the front page of today’s newspaper. We have cited the facts and figures before, but here we go again: Augusta’s reassessment increased residential property values by 27.7 percent over four years at a time when reassessments increased only slightly – by less than 5 percent over two years in both Waynesboro and Staunton – or declined in other communities.

This has kindled outrage, leading Augusta landowner and lawyer Francis Chester to initiate a petition drive calling for a rollback to 2005 values and a pledge to sue if supervisors ignore him. So far, only Supervisor Tracy Pyles has supported Chester’s call.

Part of the problem, property owners say, is they weren’t given enough time for appeals. The county board of assessors will stop hearing appeals this week, roughly one month after landowners received their reassessment notices from the county. Some property owners say this has made it difficult or almost impossible to line up independent appraisers in time to lodge a strong challenge. In cases such as Sprouse’s, paying for an independent appraisal is not an option, which hinders her hope of winning an appeal.

Here is where we have a problem: More than slight tinges of doubt have been raised about the numbers. It is difficult for us to perceive Augusta County as appraisers apparently do, a singular oasis in a desert of stagnant or plunging home values spreading from one end of the country to the other.

David Hickey, president of Staunton-based Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal, the company that conducted the assessments, points to January home sales as vindication. A small cluster of homes sold here fetched $400,000, or about 7 percent, more than their assessed value. But here’s another number: just 33 homes sold in Augusta, an anemic figure even in a traditionally slow month.

Realtor Jim Duncan, an ardent market watcher, offers valuable perspective. Home sales in Augusta and Waynesboro dipped in January to 39 from 62 in the same month a year ago, according to figures cited on his Web site, RealWaynesboro.com. This continues a trend of dwindling year-over-year volume that stretched through much of last year and began accelerating in the fall. The market has stalled, which means that buyers aren’t placing the same value on properties that sellers – or perhaps appraisers – are.

The larger flaw at the moment is supervisors’. They have chosen to slip behind the veil of process. Let it work, they say. Aside from Pyles, supervisors have lacked the will to take a hard look at the figures. We say, roll back the values and review the numbers, then make the budget work. This is the kind of process that would serve property owners.

In the meantime, supervisors should be advised: Hiding won’t be an option when the next election rolls around. Property owners will remember 2009. So, too, will we.