Augusta real estate: researching the numbers

In Augusta County, the #1 story these days is the increase in real estate assessments and the revolt that is occurring among citizens who are tax weary and feel the government has turned a deaf ear to their pleas.

The local reporter who has been all over the real estate assessment story is Bob Stuart with the Waynesboro News Virginian ... and this morning he adds yet another piece to the puzzle while researching the numbers:

Home sales peaked in Augusta County and Waynesboro in June 2007, when 174 units were sold at a median sale price of $206,450, the second-highest figures recorded since county reassessments last were conducted in 2005.

While real estate nationwide collapsed, the local market slipped into a slow, steady decline over the last half of 2007 and the first six months of last year. In September, the drop began to accelerate: the median sale price hit $149,500, a drop of more than a fourth since June 2007 and the lowest since March 2005. Just 72 units were sold.
...
Augusta County’s reassessment, released a week ago, increased residential values by an average of 27.7 percent over 2005. Waynesboro’s residential values increased just 3.7 percent over two years.

Local residents have been trying to tell that very thing to people at the Government Center. Their response to me: "No one is listening."

When the government doesn't listen, citizens take action. The NV continued:

The jump in Augusta has stirred ire among property owners and tightened focus on Staunton-based Blue Ridge Mass Appraisal, the company that conducted the reassessment. A local lawyer, Francis Chester, has started a petition drive and vowed he will sue if the county does not roll back the reassessment to 2005. An online petition drive also has begun.

Two Augusta County residents who have listened are Pastures Supervisor Tracy Pyles and Churchville lawyer Francis Chester. Mr. Pyles fought the other board members over this issue in the fall of 2008. Mr. Chester is collecting signatures on petitions to sue the county if they do not offer a rollback to the 2004 assessments.

On October 23, 2008, I wrote about the running battle between Supervisor Pyles and the other six supervisors on the board:

All the supervisors stressed to the public to trust them ... they would do the right thing ... equalization of the tax rate would make things fall in line if the assessments were too high.

Equalization of the tax rate means the county's tax rate would lower to offset assessments ... if the county so chooses. In 2005, I sat through the county proceedings when Mr. Pyles proposed a two-cent drop in the rate to equalize the 22% raise ... and it was voted down by the Board of Supervisors. The last time the county voted to equalize assessments was 1983.

The rancor on the Board was evident and a couple of them were not veiled in their remarks on what Mr. Pyles was attempting to do with one commenting that he was "tired of listening to you." It came across to the public, and several commented on their shock at the animosity that had been expressed toward another supervisor. A dozen local residents addressed the Board, all in agreement with Mr. Pyles.

At last Wednesday's BOS meeting (1-28-09), that same animosity still came across.

Search the News Virginian's reassessment data base.