Valuation of county hits $1 billion

An 11.1 percent increase in residential appraisals helped push the total taxable value of property in Cape Girardeau County over $1 billion for the first time, during this year's property reassessment.

While the milestone is worth noting, the true significance goes beyond the raw figures to what it says about the state of the local economy, said John Mehner, president and CEO of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce.

"My initial reaction is that those kinds of increases are signs of the county being healthy," Mehner said. "Obviously, you want those assessments going up if you are selling but you don't want them going up if you are paying the taxes."

Under state law, county assessors must set values for all real property every two years. The new values determine whether property-tax rates rise or fall within the limits set by law and, for school districts, play a role in determining the amount of state aid.

The assessed value, however, is not the market value of all property. Instead, the values represent a portion of the market value that varies depending on the type of property. For example, the assessed value assigned to residences is 19 percent of market value, for farm property the rate is 12 percent and for commercial property it is 32 percent.

At the end of the last reassessment cycle in 2005, the total for Cape Girardeau County was $894.7 million. While a portion of the increase is a result of new construction, most of it stems from rising property values.

County residents have been relatively quiet about the new values listed on notices sent to property owners, Assessor Jerry Reynolds said. So far, he said, only one homeowner has asked for a formal hearing before the Board of Equalization, which hears challenges to assigned property values.

Nearly a dozen other challenges have been filed by representatives of large businesses, he said. But many of those challenges may not result in a hearing, Reynolds said. "A lot of times they just file to preserve their rights," he said.

Most questions about the assigned value can be handled informally, Reynolds said. The Board of Equalization will begin hearing formal challenges to assessments in July. Questions or challenges can be directed to the assessors office at the County Administration Building in Jackson or the Courthouse Annex on Lorimier Street in Cape Girardeau.

Along with the 11.1 percent rise in residential values, commercial property values rose 6.4 percent. Representatives of area real estate brokers said those increases reflect the area's market, showing healthy growth. This area hasn't experienced the runaway increases showing up in reassessment in major urban areas such as St. Louis, they said, nor is it suffering from a market saturated with foreclosed or unsellable homes that is driving down values in places like Dearborn, Mich.

"No matter what the East Coast or the West Coast does, or what happens down in Texas, we are just a slight bump up or a slight bump down," said Thomas M. Meyer of Exit Realty. "We don't go to the sky on property values, nor do we go to the cellar."

Most of the run-up in local values took place in 2005 and early 2006, said Martha Hamilton of Prudential Bridgeport Inc. Realtors. Home values have stabilized in recent months, she said, as homes are staying unsold a little longer and inventories of properties to be sold have increased. "In the last year, I would say there has been very little appreciation in the residential market."

Foreclosures in the area are up, she said, but are far behind national rates.

The 11 percent rise in home values is more than Hamilton expected, but that could reflect adjustments to property that may have been undervalued.

The real estate brokers interviewed all paid close attention to notices of the new assessments on their own property and generally found little to complain about. "Looking it over, I decided it was a fair assessment," Hamilton said. "But there is an appeals process and I would encourage people to do that if they are dissatisfied."

One of the driving forces of the steady, if unspectacular, growth in property values is that Cape Girardeau and the surrounding areas are attractive to people wanting city amenities without big-city headaches, said Gary Turner, a broker at Coldwell Banker Select Realtors.

"I don't suppose any of us like taxes, but we are in a good area where growth has been good and that is just the nature of the beast," he said. "You have to expect that from time to time."

The taxing entities that rely on property taxes are required by law to reduce rates to avoid a windfall of revenue when assessments rise more than inflation. That doesn't mean the increased assessments won't result in a higher tax bill.

The assessment of his personal home is about what he expected, Meyer said, and he anticipates paying more in taxes. "I am never going to be happy with paying more, but I do realize that I am going to get more out of it through city services and county services."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126