Cherokee County Tax Assessors Office to begin mailing property tax assessment notices
Posted By: Tax Assessor's Office on May-11-2020 @ 09:36 am
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
April 28, 2020
Cherokee County Tax Assessors Office to begin mailing property tax assessment notices
Canton, Ga - Cherokee County residential and rural property owners will begin receiving their annual property tax assessment notices in mid-May, as the Cherokee County Tax Assessors Office works to distribute the more than 100,000 notices.
The Board of Tax Assessors is expected to sign off on the notices at its May 7 meeting with mailings to begin Monday, May 11. There will be 104,394 real property notices sent, while about 6,500 personal property notices will be distributed. Commercial/Industrial notices will be delayed until June 1 with an appeal deadline of Thursday, July 16.
“Jan. 1 is the assessment date in Georgia, and we are required to pursue valuations that line up with all of the prior years sales values (2019),” said Steve Swindell, chief appraiser for Cherokee County.
The assessment notices include the value assigned to a property to measure applicable taxes, as well as qualified exemptions, such as homestead and senior tax exemptions. Homeowners who do not agree with the value placed on their property will have a 45-day window to appeal the amount, which will end on June 25.
The Cherokee County tax digest grew by 7.85 percent to a little over $12 billion in total assessed (40 percent) value, of which about 4 percent is due to inflationary adjustments. Taxpayers should see an average 4 percent value adjustment on their notices. Depending on the location or market of the property in the county, adjustments could be more or less than the average. Approximately 3.85 percent of the overall growth is attributed to new construction and new land subdivisions. The 2019 median residential property value is $285,100 and the average sale price was $300,000. The 2020 values are based on 6,969 property sales in 2019.
"We understand that taxpayers will want their assessment values to reflect some of the economic effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The trouble is, even as we look at sales that occurred after the Jan. 1 assessment date, our values continue to track downward as the market continued to accelerate after the first of the year," Swindell said. "Even now, the real estate market remains relatively strong. We are required by law to assess properties each year as close to fair market value as possible, and we believe we have accomplished this goal for the 2020 digest. Any effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the real estate market will be reflected in the 2021 tax digest."
Homeowners wishing to file an appeal can find instructions on their assessment notice. For more information, please contact the Cherokee County Tax Assessors office at 678-493-6120 or online at www.cherokeega.com/tax-assessors-office.
