About 100 people showed up to a meeting to protest revals in Waynesville, Clyde, Beaverdam, and Maggie Valley. One unhappy property owner is faced with a 52% increase. The group decided to circulate a petition to repeal. Those present presumed it would be a piece of cake to collect an impressive number of signatures in about a week.

Besides the financial pain, residents were also upset that statements enclosed with the assessments cite state law in declaring that property revaluations cannot be appealed on the basis of changes in the economic climate. Horace Edwards correctly noted the US Constitution protects everybody’s right to petition for redress of grievances. To share the pain, since the revals are being contested, protesters are threatening to put their tax payments into an escrow account until the matter is resolved.

Mark Swanger, chairman of the Haywood County Board of Commissioners, argued the issue was pure mathematics. He added the revals were “postponed once because we did not believe there were enough valid sales.”

The operative word is “valid.” A quick call to the Buncombe County tax office corroborated that revals must be performed uniformly across the state, in accordance with state rules. Prices are based on market values. Foreclosures are disqualified.

Lest we jump to the conclusion that the low end of the market is eliminated, systematically inflating assessments, our friend at the assessor’s office assures us that banks are under pressure to sell the properties they collect. Bank sales are qualified and valid. She put it this way:

  • If five comparables change ownership, and four are foreclosed, only the market transaction is valid.
  • If five comparables change ownership, and four are bank sales, then the bank sales represent the typical market, and their sale price is used.
  • If five comparables change ownership, four are between private parties, and one is a bank sale, then the private party sales represent the typical market, and their sale price is used.

Since bank sales represent the better of two prices, and the rock-bottom sales are disqualified; it would be safe to assume revals in a market with a high foreclosure rate are artificially (and dangerously) high.