In anticipation of its 2025 property tax revaluation, Dare County has launched an informational webpage to assist property owner-taxpayers. It can be accessed at DareNC.gov/Revaluation.
If you have a sense that Dare County “just” reassessed property values, you are correct. It has reduced the time between revaluations by two years, the last revaluation being conducted in 2020, on the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As The Beacon reported 6/2/24, when we learned about the 2025 reassessment by reviewing Southern Shores’ recommended FY 2024-25 budget, the State of North Carolina requires all counties to conduct property revaluations at least every eight years, on an “octennial cycle.” (See N.C. General Statutes sec. 105-286)
Counties may “advance” the revaluation cycle, however, if they choose.
Our records show that Dare County has largely observed a septennial revaluation cycle in recent years, having conducted revaluations on Jan. 1, 1998, Jan. 1, 2005, Jan. 1, 2013, and Jan. 1, 2020. It has never before scheduled a five-year cycle.
When the County revalues properties, it purportedly updates them to align with their current fair market values, which reflect “the most probable price a particular property would bring at sale in an open and competitive market,” according to a press release by Dare County.
A timeline on the new webpage shows that the County will revalue properties as of Jan. 1 and send out property assessment notices to property owner-taxpayers in February. See https://www.darenc.gov/departments/tax-department/2025-revaluation/revaluation-timeline.
Taxpayers will have 30 days after the date of their Value Notices to submit informal appeals to the Dare Tax Department, requesting an adjustment of new assessed property values.
Sales of homes comparable to a property being revalued are typically considered indicative of market value and are used by taxpayers to argue that Dare’s revaluation is incorrect. The Dare County 2025 Revaluation webpage actually has a comparable sales search tool that you may use to assess the accuracy and fairness of your property’s revaluation.
We will evaluate the search tool in January after we receive Value Notices to “test.”
The Dare County Board of Commissioners will set tax rates in June 2025, and the County will mail tax bills with new values in July and August, according to the timeline.
The new webpage also includes an overview of the revaluation process, answers to frequently asked questions, and Dare County’s “pledge” to work with all property owners to “ensure that every property is appraised at a reasonable estimate of its market value.”
By Ann G. Sjoerdsma, The Beacon, 12/6/24
The Southern Shores Beacon 