Goochland County will begin assessing its real estate annually after this year’s biennial results shocked many residents who saw an increase in their assessed values. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday night unanimously approved the change, which could mean a loss of $2.34 million in county revenue next year. It also could mean higher real estate taxes in coming years.

It’s important for assessors and commissioners to do a reassessment right. Their job is to determine the fair-market value of real estate—and that matters to property owners, because it is one of the two factors that determine their real estate tax bill. Assessments are supposed to be an impartial estimate. It’s the other piece—the rate at which property is taxed—that’s a political decision.

Hanover County resident James Bradley said he was shocked to see his home’s assessment go from $215,200 to $236,600—a 10 percent increase. “Prices of houses are dropping everywhere,“ he said, “[but] the value of my property is going up?“ Bradley lives on an acre on Cool Spring Road. He said he hasn’t done anything to improve his house since building it nearly a decade ago. Given the recession, he said, assessments should not be going up.