Sunday, October 18, 2009
The county’s last complete appraisal was done six years ago.
YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County’s real-estate reappraisal is being complicated by the recession-induced sales shortages, according to the reappraisal company.
“There are fewer transactions to work with. There’s less sales activity,” from which comparable selling prices can be derived, said Richard Barrett, an appraiser with the Niles-based Integrity Appraisal Services Inc.
The county auditor’s office hired Integrity in March to perform the once-every-six-years reappraisal of the county’s 166,000 parcels of real estate to determine their value for taxing purposes. The actual tax rates are set by voters in each community.
So far, all parcels in the county have been photographed; and appraisers have visited 24,000 of them, all in Youngstown, as the company has begun its two-year task.
The field work will continue through the winter, and likely into next spring in Youngstown, which contains about one-third of the county’s real estate parcels, said Doug Constance, Integrity’s treasurer.
Barrett explained how the shortage of sales data makes the appraisers’ task more difficult.
“If I went into a neighborhood and I had 50 sales, I’m more comfortable with my value than I am if I go into that same neighborhood and I only have 10 sales,” Barrett said.
Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator or Vindy.com.