Petersburg real estate values are up across the city, rose 13% this past year

Sean Jones, The Progress-Index
·3 min read
Your property taxes are calculated by taking the assessed value of your home and multiplying it by your local tax rate. If your home is worth $500,000 and your local tax rate is 2%, you're looking at a $10,000 property tax bill.
Your property taxes are calculated by taking the assessed value of your home and multiplying it by your local tax rate. If your home is worth $500,000 and your local tax rate is 2%, you're looking at a $10,000 property tax bill.

PETERSBURG – The City Assessor’s Office’s annual report shows that property values in Petersburg have risen 13.43% over the past year. Residential values have gone up while the number of sales has also increased substantially.

Along with higher property values across several categories, the quantity of real estate transactions increased 28%, while the number of foreclosures dropped 32% over the past year. The number of valid sales - or properties sold for market value - are up 44% over the past year, and 400% over the past three years.

The median home value rose 6% to $98,200. This citywide reassessment for FY2023 takes Petersburg’s total land book value up to $2.5 billion in taxable real estate.

Property Classes and their percent changes

Residential (approx. 44% of total book value): increased 10%

Multi-Family (approx. 21% of total book value): increased 24%

Commercial (approx. 24% of total book value): increased 9%

Agriculture (approx. 1% of total book value): increased 10%

City Assessor Brian Gordineer said that 74% of property owners will be getting a change in assessment for the upcoming billing cycle. The majority of those homeowners will have a higher property value, at an average of a 10% increase. About one-tenth of those reassessments will be decreases averaging 12%.

Gordineer said most of the decreases are tax-exempt properties scattered throughout the city, rather than a concentration of decreased values in any one area. Tax exempt properties had not been addressed in several years and decreased by 31% in the most recent report.

Although homeowners' values have increased substantially in many cases, their property taxes can only increase 1%. Virginia limits the amount of revenue a locality can take when assessments go up. A city’s income from real estate taxes can only rise 1% over the previous year's tax revenue, regardless of the increase in property values.

Petersburg will have to reduce its tax rate, which has long been one of the highest in Virginia. In 2018, Petersburg had the third highest real estate tax rate in Virginia ($1.30 per $100 of assessed value) behind Manassas Park ($1.55 per $100) and Manassas ($1.46 per $100). That put Petersburg ahead of places like Richmond ($1.20 per $100), Roanoke ($1.22 per $100) and Fairfax ($1.06 per $100).

In Virginia, assessor’s offices are required to assess property at 100% market value. The Virginia Department of Taxation audits their work by checking assessments to sales ratios. For the past three years, Petersburg’s assessors have been within 4 percentage points of 100%.

Residents will start getting postcards notifying them of the change on Jan. 28. The first bill with this updated value will be due in July. The new value will be the basis for fiscal year 2023 and 2024.

Notice - Appeals and tax relief programs

Property owners wishing to appeal their property assessment may file an office review application (deadline March 1, 2022). Forms are available online at www.peterburg-va.org/148/City-Assessor, at the City Assessor's Office or can be requested at (804) 733-2336. The Assessor is asking property owners to call first with questions, as space is limited at City Hall due to COVID restrictions.

Property owners dissatisfied with the outcome of their appeal to the City Assessor's Office may file an appeal to the Board of Equalization, a three-member citizen board appointed by the Circuit Court. The deadline to file a Board of Equalization application is April 1, 2022.

The City of Petersburg offers tax relief to homeowners who are 65 years of age or older, permanently and totally disabled, and meet certain income and net worth requirements. Citizens are encouraged to contact the Commissioner of the Revenue at (804) 733-2315 for more information.

You can reach Sean Jones at sjones@progress-index.com. Follow him at @SeanJones_PI. Follow The Progress-Index on Twitter at @ProgressIndex.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Petersburg real estate values increase 13% since last year