The last time a countywide revaluation of houses, business property and other real property was conducted and implemented in Guilford County, most property owners saw their tax bills shoot up somewhere between 25 to 30 percent.

Since 2022 – the last countywide reappraisal – almost every home and property owner in the county has been paying much more each year in property taxes, and they’re still reeling from that event three years ago.

Guilford County is currently on a five-year reevaluation cycle; however, since the assessed property values in the last reval in 2022 came in at less than 85 percent of actual sales prices conducted after the reappraisal, the county is required by state law to hold a new revaluation sooner than planned which means that 2026 could be a very ugly year for taxpayers in Guilford County.

At an annual retreat of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners on Thursday, Jan. 22 held at NC A &T State University, Tax Director Ben Chavis dropped something of a bombshell on the commissioners: If a reappraisal conducted today, a 32 percent increase would not be out of the norm.

According to Chavis, on average, housing and other property values in Guilford County are currently assessed at roughly just 68 percent of their actual value.

Chavis said that after housing and other property values were assessed in 2022 – despite a big increase heading into that year – housing values ballooned even further, which is why, if a revaluation were held today, the value of the average house would be 32 percent more than it’s currently valued at on the tax books down at the Guilford County Tax Department.

If the Guilford County Board of Commissioners keeps the current tax rate at 73.05 cents of every $100 of assessed property value, and there’s no dramatic change in area housing values before the end of 2025, then county residents would, on average, see a whopping 32 percent increase in taxes.

(Those who live in cities and towns that have property taxes would see those city and town taxes go up dramatically as well unless the municipalities they reside in take action to lower the tax rate.)

Chavis told the commissioners at the annual retreat held earlier this month that in recent months housing prices did seem to be “leveling off” so there’s a good chance that the number might not go higher than 32 percent – but time will tell.

If the county tax rate is left the same it would mean another huge windfall in taxpayer money that the county commissioners could spend on whatever their hearts desire.

In a sense, it would bail the commissioners out because – thanks to approving across-the-board pay raises, funding $2 billion in school bonds and doing things like dramatically increasing the size of the county’s MWBE department in recent years – the commissioners are running dry of money after a three-year spending spree unlike anything the county has ever seen –  at least since the Rhino Times began covering Guilford County government in the early 1990s.

The lack of current county funds became clear at the annual retreat when Guilford County Manager Mike Halford warned the commissioners over and over again that they had to stop reaching into the county’s savings account, as the board has done three years in a row – because using savings dollars to pay for recurring expenses leads to extremely unpleasant financial outcomes for local governments.

The Board of Commissioners with seven Democrats and two Republican commissioners could lower the tax rate to a “revenue-neutral” after the 2026 appraisal, thus holding property owners harmless and keeping tax bills essentially where they are now.

However, the current board, ruled by Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston, didn’t do that during the last revaluation, is currently desperate for money due to the board’s amazing spending practices, and has shown zero inclination to do anything other than to take in as much money as possible and spend it as quickly as they can along with millions from the county’s savings account thrown in.

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