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Tax Assessment Work Group

Orange County · Tax Assessment Work Group
Monday, March 2, 2026

Other Housing and affordabilityTax rate and revaluationContracts and procurementLand conversion and large development

Agenda document Minutes Watch Meeting recap

What was decided

  1. Approved 2Approval of Minutes Approved unanimously

Read from the agenda's recorded outcomes. Where the board published minutes, those are the record — this is a pointer to them.

What's on this agenda

Orange County's tax assessment work group heard two appraisers on March 2, one making the case that the county's 2025 commercial revaluation was aggressive but correct, and one from Stanly County explaining why his county brought all its revaluation work in house twenty years ago.

The group is unusually broad for a technical committee. Alongside three county commissioners and county staff it seats community representatives from two districts, a representative of the NC Housing Coalition, one from Property Tax Justice, and a non-profit housing provider.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

The commercial presentation argued from the assessment ratio, assessed value divided by market sales price. The baseline figures showed a need for significant correction; the correction came partly through an aggressive but accurate commercial assessment; total appeal reductions came in lower than predicted; and the 2025 ratio recorded by the state Department of Revenue sits within standards.

Two things surfaced that were not on the agenda. Members raised a possible conflict of interest in Analytical Consultants being the only appraisal firm based in Orange County, and asked how transparency is maintained when a local firm does county appraisal work. They also discussed houses operated as several separate households while classified as single-family, and how the tax office identifies rental use. Staff explained the approach applies countywide but only once a property comes to the office's attention, so unreported properties stay classified as they are. The Stanly County administrator described contracted revaluations from 1993 to 2001 as unsuccessful, said face-to-face appeals with familiar staff build public trust, and reported that early outreach to commercial owners cut his county's commercial appeals from 142 in 2021 to 62 in 2025. Residential values there rose an average of 42 percent against 22 percent for commercial. The group set its next meeting for March 9 to review a request for proposals.

Speaking at this meeting

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Agenda items (4)

Presentation · 2Minutes approval · 1Discussion item · 1
  1. 2 Approval of Minutes
    Minutes approval
    The meeting summary from February 9, 2026.
    Approved unanimously
  2. 3 Commercial Appraisal Overview and Valuation Work for Orange County
    Presentation Housing and affordabilityTax rate and revaluation
    Paul Snow of Analytical Consultants presented on the county's commercial assessment, arguing from the assessment ratio that baseline figures showed a need for significant correction, that the correction came partly through an aggressive but accurate commercial assessment, that appeal reductions came in below prediction, and that the 2025 ratio recorded by the state Department of Revenue is within standards. Members raised a possible conflict of interest in the firm being the only appraisal company based in the county, and asked how the tax office identifies homes run as several separate households while classified as single-family; staff said a property can only be reclassified once someone…
  3. 4 In-House vs. Commercial Appraisal Discussion
    Presentation Contracts and procurementHousing and affordabilityTax rate and revaluation
    Clinton Swaringen, tax administrator for Stanly County, described why his county moved all revaluation work in house in 2005 after contracted revaluations from 1993 to 2001 were judged unsuccessful. He said face-to-face appeals with familiar staff build trust and reduce conflict, and that early outreach to commercial owners cut commercial appeals from 142 in 2021 to 62 in the 2025 revaluation. Residential values in that county rose 42 percent on average against 22 percent commercial. He noted state-mandated valuation methods keep Section 42 affordable housing values low and produce few appeals, and that the county relies on a state-certified in-house commercial appraiser.
  4. 5 Discussion of Next Steps
    Discussion item Contracts and procurementHousing and affordabilityLand conversion and large developmentTax rate and revaluation
    The group set its next meeting, March 9, to review a request for proposals.

Agenda changes

What moved between published versions of this agenda. Item numbers shift constantly as things are inserted, so only genuine additions and removals are listed.

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