Suburbs

Ahh, Spring.

The birth of newness in the air. Warm weather. Budding trees. Flowers fighting their way through the turf, reaching for the warmer sunlight to christen the color and freshness of the changing season.

And suburban property owners cursing as they look at their mail.

This week, county Assessor Melvin Burgess sent a nice colorful pamphlet to let the homeowners know about the 2025 Notice of Property Reappraisal. Hence, the swearing, cursing and questioning.

We dealt with property taxes this week with a touch on reappraisal embedded in the story by reporters Michael Waddell and Abigail Warren. They looked at how property taxes have changed over the past decade or so.

Of course, some of this was borne from the creation of municipal school districts in the six suburbs across Shelby County. For example, Lakeland instituted its first property tax around 2013 when it set a rate of 85 cents per $100 of assessed value with schools in mind. The rate would rise to $1.40 as the suburb prepared for construction of Lakeland Prep.

“People of our community realized schools are an investment, just like public safety,” Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo said referring to a 45-cent jump about the time the suburban district left the Shelby County Schools system.

Homeowners in incorporated cities, including Memphis, must pay county taxes in addition to the municipal rate. And the reappraisal amount – usually an increase in home values – affects both.

As usual, people don’t agree when their property values rise considerably, say in the 20% to 40% range or higher. The social media posters are citing theirs going up even more, some at seemingly astronomical amounts. That leads to the inevitable doubt that the homeowner could sell for the amount of the reappraisal. City halls already are getting calls from residents who heartily disagree with their new value.

And the assessor’s website sure was working slowly Thursday morning, probably from people looking at comparable sales in the area, grabbing the data to support their appeal.

The whole thing is an interesting dynamic. People selling their homes are more than likely going to list the price higher than they expect to get. And will be dang pleased to get the asking amount.

I seem to recall on a visit to Fairhope, Alabama, that there were For Sale signs throughout the city. I thought everyone was moving from Fairhope. Then I saw that the price they were asking was the value of their property appraisal. The amount was high enough that they were willing to abandon their home and move on if someone paid the price.

Maybe that is part of what is going on here. Maybe the assessor goes for a higher value, expects a certain percentage of arguing, ‘er appeals, and benefits from those who accept the new appraisal.

Of course, the party line is that the certified tax rate will decrease the current amount. The rule is that the property taxes are supposed to generate the same revenue for a government as BEFORE reappraisal. But that is too much calculating for someone who majored in journalism to avoid math.

I’ll just rely on my gut feeling and figure I’m going to pay more in property taxes than I did for 2024.

And for those cold calls that come to my cell phone asking if I have considered selling my house, my asking price will continue to be $8.5 million. - Suburbs editor Clay Bailey

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