COASTAL OBSERVER

Property values in Georgetown County rose an average of just over 9 percent in the last year. More than 50,000 owners began finding out last week how their values changed as the county sent out reassessment notices, a process mandated by state law every five years.

“Some people’s values doubled,” said Tim Holt, the county assessor.

To people who approach him with sticker shock, he points to a line at the top of the reassessment notice that says, “This is not a tax bill.” 

Those will come later this fall. 

As a part of the reassessment process, Georgetown County Council this week lowered the property tax rate by 8.2 percent for operations. The new tax rate includes a slight increase over  last year for law enforcement. State law requires local governments to roll back tax rates so they don’t reap a windfall from reassessment.

The process this year was affected by the rise in property values that came with the coronavirus pandemic that began in 2020. That combined with a state law adopted nearly 20 years ago that limits the increase in property values for tax purposes.

The law caps that increase at 15 percent for a five year reassessment cycle. But the cap comes off when the property is sold.

“If people bought a property in 2024 that’s been capped, they look at the taxes” and expect their bill will be the same, Holt said.

But if the cap was at $500,000 and the buyer paid $1 million, “they get sticker shock when they see their tax bill,” he said.

For property owners living in the same home today that they did in 2020, the increase in value won’t translate into a large tax increase.

Karis Langston, the county finance director, used the example of a owner-occupied house with an assessed value of $200,000 in 2024.

The taxes on the home for county operations were $624 last year.

If the value rose by 15 percent, the maximum allowed in a reassessment year, the taxes on the $230,000 assessed value would be $658.72. That’s an increase of 5.6 percent.

If the assessed value rose by 10 percent, a little more than the average across the county, the tax bill would be $630.08, a 1 percent increase.

“Ten percent is kind of our sweet spot,” Langston said.

The assessed values don’t take into account the state’s homestead exemption, but reduces the market value of owner-occupied homes by $50,000 for owners who are over 65 or disabled.

Property values on the Waccamaw  Neck increased more than the county average.

The town of Pawleys Island had the largest average increase: 13.4 percent. In the rest of the Midway Fire District, values increased an average of 11.2 percent.

In Murrells Inlet, the average increase was 10.1 percent.

In the rural areas of Georgetown County, property values rose an average of 4.6 percent.

The town of Andrews saw a 7.6 percent rise in average value, but its total property value, $7.3 million, was the lowest of any tax district in the county.

The city of Georgetown had a 3.2 percent rise in average values. That was the lowest of any area in the county.

The same law that caps increases during reassessment exempts owner-occupied homes from property taxes to fund school operations. 

The commercial, agricultural and industrial property assessed for school operations rose an average of 6.6 percent during reassessment.

“Very few things I saw went down,” Holt said.

Since the reassessment notices started going out the phones in Holt’s office have been ringing steadily, but not as much as expected.

“We were preparing for the worst, hoping for the best,” he said. “I haven’t seen lines out the door.”

He said his staff can make changes if a property owner can show an error in the assessment. People who dispute the staff’s decision have 90 days to file an appeal with the Assessment Board of Appeals.

If the appeal isn’t resolved before the tax bill comes due, state law provides for the owner to pay 80 percent of the tax.

“We’ve been very fortunate. We work them very quickly,” Holt said.