The result of an appeal of Jones County’s 2023 sales ratio study resulted in three sample properties being removed, increasing the sales ratio from 31.26 to 31.43. The goal to be in compliance is 36.
The 2023 ratio is actually worse than 2022’s ratio of 32.9, showing regression instead of moving toward equal values for all properties in the county.
What is the sales ratio? If the Tax Assessors office is doing its job correctly, when a property is sold, its assessment –which is 40 percent of the assessed value of a property – should not be out of line with the sales price. That means a perfect sales ratio would be 40.
For example, one of the sample properties in the report sold for $289,845. The 2023 assessment was $117,582. Dividing the assessment by the sales price equals 40.57, so that property was nearly perfectly assessed.
Looking at the other recent sales used in the 2023 sales ratio study, however, some are more than 50 while others are closer to 25, leading to the average ratio of 31.43.
While higher sales prices on properties have made that more of a challenge, Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts (DOAA) Sales Ratio Division Director Lee Thomas said the market has cooled with enough time to adjust.
“Between 2020 and 2022, the median price of a house in metro Atlanta increased by $100,000,” he said. “The median price barely changed in 2023, so it has finally leveled off.”
Thomas said in pockets like Jones County, properties are appraised at $50-60 per square foot but are now selling for $110-$130 per square foot.
The director added that the problem in Jones County has been evident for years.
“There was some kind of freeze a couple of years ago; something stood out,” he said. “Values hadn’t changed for three to four years. Sixty percent of the values hadn’t change, and commercial actually went down over the last five years.”
The county has 15 days from the Oct. 7 report to request arbitration, but Thomas thinks it would not help with a performance review from the Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) planned this month.
The DOR is the enforcement arm, and Thomas said the review would be very detailed.
“They look at processes and how the department is operating,” he said. “They will also listen to past meetings. Every county is reviewed every three years in all 159 counties,” he said, adding that Jones County passed in 2020 with a ratio of 39.3.
“Jones County will fail for 2023,” Thomas added, “but that gives them three years to fix it. Counties are only cited if there are two consecutive failures.”
He said individual properties should not be adjusted due to a sale, according to the director. Instead, the schedule for the neighborhood should be adjusted so that all of the properties in a neighborhood reflect fair market values.
“The goal is uniformity across all properties,” he said. “If properties are valued at $55 per square foot but selling for $95, the schedule should be adjusted to reflect sales of $80-95 per square foot.”
These suggestions are what appraisers have told commissioners they want to do but are restricted from doing so by Chief Appraiser Anthony George, as previously reported in The Jones County News.
Digging into the data
Looking at one property in the sales ratio study, the home sold in January of 2023 for $424,372 with an assessment by the county of $119,799. That sales ratio is 28.23. Looking at the assessment notice on qpublic. net, the 2023 appraised value of the property was $299,497. That went up to $416,390 in 2024, a 39% increase that coincides with the sale.
That means the previous owner paid around $4,303.78 in taxes while the new owner would pay $5,689.20 the following year, even though the total millage rate was reduced from 35.925 to 34.161 due to tax rollbacks.
How does that compare to properties that were revalued in 2024 without a sale? Using a house in the city of Gray, there are no changes to property value in 2022 or 2023. Suddenly, in 2024, the appraised value goes from $201,989 to $232,597. The 2023 tax bill was $3,787.06, but the 2024 tax bill comes to $4,062.17 despite the millage rate rollbacks.
Thomas explained that might not have been the case if all properties in the value were calculated fairly.
“A bigger cut may have come if all properties were brought to fair market value,” he said. “The millage rate could go down even more.”
The director said the DOR performance review might result in a recommendation of a full revaluation of all properties in Jones County.
The unusual number of overrides in the tax digest also leads to different property values. Thomas said the overrides do not affect the sales ratio study because that study only reflects recently sold properties.
Looking at two shopping centers in Gray, one that is not on the override list has seen modest increases. It went from $4.07 million in 2021-22 to $4.09 million in 2023 and $4.275 million in 2024.
A similar shopping center that is on the override list without an explanation has seen no change in value for the same period, locked in at $3.49 million for all four years.
Many homeowners are left to pay increased taxes, especially if they have purchased property recently, while other properties are allowed to coast. “All property values should adjust based on a schedule,” Thomas said, “not just manual adjustments.”
