NEWS

Process started on finalizing revaluation appraisals

By JOHN HOWELL
Posted 1/19/22

By JOHN HOWELL Wondering what your house was worth on the last day of 2021? You should know what the company performing the revaluation thinks it could have sold for on Dec. 31, 2021 by the end of February. Those valuations, once the tax rolls are

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NEWS

Process started on finalizing revaluation appraisals

Posted

Wondering what your house was worth on the last day of 2021?

You should know what the company performing the revaluation thinks it could have sold for on Dec. 31, 2021 by the end of February. Those valuations, once the tax rolls are certified in June, will be used for the basis of municipal taxes for the next three years.

Unless you have been oblivious to the housing market, you know home prices have skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 with buyers boosting the asking prices by tens of thousands of dollars in bidding wars. Realtors cite a shortage of inventory and when demand exceeds supply prices go up. According to the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, the median price of a single-family home in Warwick climbed from $270,000 last November to $320,000 this November – an increase of 18.5 percent.

However, City Tax Assessor Neal Dupuis is not prepared to make any generalized forecasts as to how much residential and commercial valuations will increase as a result of the revaluation required every three years by state law. In a recent interview, he placed the overall valuation of Warwick properties at $11.5 billion. He broke that down to $7 billion in residential values and $2.5 billion in commercial. The remaining $2 billion in valuation he identified as non-taxable properties including state properties – CCRI and the airport – and tax-exempt properties such as churches and non-profits.

Dupuis said appraisers are working with 1,400 to 1,500 property transactions since the last revaluation to arrive at values. Of special interest are the most current sales since they should most closely reflect what properties were worth as of Dec. 31, 2021.  He said while agreements had been reached on the sale of some properties prior to the end of the year, they also would be looked at once finalized.

“Let the market speak,” he said referencing how sales will serve to set valuations.

That is not the case, however, for commercial properties. Unlike residential properties that can be comparable, commercial valuations are driven by income. Thus, for example, retail properties that generate greater sales per square foot in one area of the city – say Route 2 rather than West Shore Road – carry a higher valuation. Dupuis said forms have been sent to approximately 3,000 commercial entities that are to be returned by the end of January. Those commercial establishments were also sent personal property forms that require companies to itemize personal property such as furniture and computers that are taxed. Dupuis said the forms are to be returned by Jan. 31, but the deadline will be extended to March 15 by request.

revaluation, appraisals

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