The assessments that help determine Richmond real estate tax bills will be barely changed, on average, this year.
Although much of the nation has seen home prices tumble, a preliminary review in the city shows the taxable value of existing real estate rose 0.86 percent to $20.16 billion, City Assessor James D. Hester said yesterday.
The slight increase means that unless the City Council changes the current tax rate, real estate tax bills won't change much. Property owners' assessment notices should be in the mail shortly.
"Yeah, I'm sure we're right," Hester said. "We read the paper like everybody . . . but it all washes down to when we look at actual sales versus assessments, generally real estate really hasn't moved."
While any one property's assessment can exceed or be less than the average, Hester said property values generally held steady except for a few small areas that saw noticeable declines.
The average increase reflects findings by Hester's staff that some neighborhoods had assessments that were less than 95 percent of recent property sales.
He said he is expecting what he called a measurable drop in assessed values next year, if the recession continues well into this year.
"We realize it's out there. It just hasn't shown up yet," he said.
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