Counties in North Carolina are required to revalue at least once every 8 years. Revaluations can be done more frequently, with many counties previously or now moving to a 4-year cycle.  North Carolina has 100 counties and not all counties revalue in the same year.

Onslow County [including the City of Jacksonville] is revaluing in 2022.  Onslow County revalues property every 4 years. If you have property located in Onslow County, you should review your revaluation notice and determine whether you think an appeal is merited because your valuation is higher than it should be. Because any value established as part of the revaluation will generally remain the same for all succeeding years until the next revaluation and because any benefit from an appeal is only for the year of appeal and subsequent years, it makes sense to appeal in the revaluation year to get the most bang for your buck.

The legal standard for property values is generally "fair market value," i.e., the value a property would trade for in the open market between a willing buyer and a willing seller. Thus, for a 2022 revaluation, the question is "what was the fair market value of the property as of January 1, 2022?"

Property owners wishing to appeal their value may file an informal appeal, although they are not obligated to do so. A property owner must, however, file a formal appeal to the Onslow County Board of Equalization and Review ["BER"] on or before June 10, 2022, to preserve their appeal rights for the 2022 year. A failure to file a BER appeal by June 10 means the property owner loses any right to a valuation adjustment for the 2022 year. The property owner could file an appeal in 2023 but would lose the benefit of any tax savings for 2022.

An article in the Carolina Coast [see here] states that virtually all properties will see an increase in value, sometimes substantial, resulting from the 2022 revaluation. The article did not mention commercial property values but did state that residential values had increased anywhere from 20 to 136 percent. This is not surprising as market values for most property types have been increasing over the last several years.  Valuation notices have gone out so now is the time to check the value of your property as reflected on the revaluation notice and determine if an appeal is merited.

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