Gateway Reporter

2023 Surry County Reassessment

Soon, new reassessment notices will be mailed to Surry County property owners. As the notice of reassessment states, the new tax rate for 2023 has not yet been established by the Board of Supervisors so the amount of real estate tax for the new proposed values cannot be determined at this time. However, real estate taxes based on this new assessment will be effective for the 2023 tax year. Property owners should be aware that current market value and equalization of assessments with similar properties are the basic requirements of a reassessment.  Percentage of increase or decrease is not, of itself, indicative of an erroneous assessment.

Virginia law requires periodic reassessments of real estate in every taxing jurisdiction. In Surry County the last reassessment was effective January 1, 2022. The purpose for a reassessment is to meet the Code of Virginia requirements that the real estate tax be levied at 100% of market value and that similar properties be assessed uniformly with each other so that the tax levy is equitably borne by the property owners of the County.   

Understandably, property owners often ask what factors lead to the decision to have reassessments in subsequent years, and what data do the assessors use in establishing market value benchmarks?  In all localities across the State, the assessment and tax levied to the public service properties changes as assessments drift away from market value.  In Surry County it is especially important that assessments are at market value due to the high amount of assessment associated with public utility properties.  While the real estate market continued to escalate throughout much of last year, the assessments certified for January 1, 2022, fell farther away from market value necessitating another reassessment effective January 1, 2023.  The following is a listing of qualified real estate sales occurring in 2022 within Surry County with the corresponding price detail which show value benchmarks in the various County neighborhoods.  These property sales were given the most weight by the assessor but other older County sales with appropriate trending could be considered as well.

Original source can be found here