Rising property taxes can be a problem for both tenants and landlords.
Corporations that have been focused on the potential windfall that tax reform will bring are getting a reality check when they look at their property tax bills. Commercial and multifamily properties across the country are seeing a spike in property taxes as assessors continue to reset values to higher levels.
It has taken property tax appraisals time to catch up from the bounce back in values that has occurred after the recession. Some jurisdictions assess commercial property values every year, while others reassess values on a two or three-year cycle. In some cases, such as with the Carolinas, assessments occur every seven years, notes Dorothy Radicevich, a principal in the state and local tax practice and national property tax leader with accounting firm BDO. Most markets are now up to speed on property values, which have now exceeded pre-recession levels in many areas of the country.
“There have been major re-evaluations in commercial properties in all of metro Atlanta for the past two years and especially this year,” says John Hunsucker, owner of Property Tax Consulting LLC in Atlanta. Some of the lower valued properties don’t get as much attention. But this year most of the counties in metro Atlanta reassessed values on higher-end properties that resulted in tremendous increases, he says.
Although some states and jurisdictions do have a cap on how much taxes can be raised annually, such as 2.0 percent to 3.0 percent, Georgia has no such cap. Some taxing authorities in metro Atlanta have gotten very aggressive with tax assessments that have jumped by more than 300 percent, notes Hunsucker. In Fulton County, for example, some of the 2018 assessed values on high-end apartments are higher than what properties could trade for in the current market, he says.
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