A look at the localities that reassessed properties

A look at localities that reassessed residential and commercial properties this year:

Chesterfield County: In all, the county's tax base grew 1 percent.

The Board of Supervisors will advertise a tax rate of 95 cents per $100 of assessed value, the same as it now charges, even though the so-called rollback-rate calculation shows it could set a 97-cent rate for all real estate. The rollback rate, which localities are required to disclose when reassessments average a more than 1 percent increase, is what the real estate tax rate would have to be to keep tax bills unchanged.

Dinwiddie County: It has been four years since the last reassessment, so county residents got notices showing that existing residential property values rose an average 47.4 percent.

Existing commercial and industrial property jumped 143 percent in value.

County Administrator W. Kevin Massengill said the real estate tax rate would need to be slashed from the current 87 cents to 61.5 cents to offset the impact of the reassessment.

The county decided to do another assessment this year after residents complained about the sharp rise in taxable values.

Goochland County: The total real estate tax base increased 3 percent. County Assessor Glenn Branham could not provide figures showing how much of the increase was due to changing residential real estate assessments, despite repeated requests.

Hanover County: County officials propose holding the tax rate unchanged at 81 cents after seeing existing residential real estate decline less than 1 percent in value, according to preliminary figures.

Most properties didn't see changes, but of about 10,000 that did, 6,000 saw increases and 4,000 saw declines.

Henrico County: Existing residential property values fell by an average 1.8 percent. The median assessed value of a single-family home declined from $248,000 to $245,400, meaning half the homes are assessed for more and half for less.

New residential construction of $281 million was not quite enough to offset the effect of the decline in existing residential property values. But Henrico will get a boost from new commercial and industrial properties.

In all, the county's total real estate tax base is up 0.5 percent, the lowest increase in at least 30 years.

Hopewell: The once-every-two-years assessment led to existing residential properties rising an average 19.8 percent in value, reflecting the strong market of 2007.

The big increase in Hopewell home values means the tax rate would need to drop by 13 cents, from $1.09 per $100 of assessed value to 96 cents, to offset the effect of the higher property values.

Louisa County: New residential construction totaling $84 million wasn't enough to offset the impact to the tax base of a 4.2 percent average decline in existing-home assessed value.

Prince George County: County Administrator John Kines proposes keeping the tax rate at 80 cents after the county saw a decline of just under 1 percent in the value of existing residential properties.

Richmond: City Assessor James D. Hester said some building-site values are increasing while total values, reflecting improvements to a parcel, appear stable.

Assessor's office appraisers said the market seems strongest for homes in the $150,000 to $300,000 range. The market is very slow for homes valued at less than $100,000, Hester said.

Overall, the new construction was enough to boost the city's real estate tax base by 5 percent.