When property tax revaluation notices started reaching mailboxes in New Hanover County earlier this month, the calls started coming into Cal Morgan’s office.

“Our phone has been ringing a lot, mainly from people who obviously think their property has been over-assessed,” said Morgan, owner of Wilmington-based commercial real estate appraisal firm JC Morgan Co.

Every four years, the county conducts “a comprehensive revaluation of all real property to ensure equitable taxation. This revaluation, mandated by North Carolina law, assesses the tax value of residential and commercial properties, including homes, office buildings, stores and farms,” according to the county’s website.  

As a result of the latest revaluation, mean commercial property tax values in New Hanover County increased by about 66%, residential by 67%. Property owners have until May 22 to appeal. According to the county, “The appeal process is designed to be accessible to all property owners, and you can represent yourself by providing relevant evidence to support your case.”

As of Tuesday, the county had received 2,886 total appeals: 2,546 residential and 340 commercial.

Some property owners choose to use real estate professionals, from appraisers like Morgan to commercial real estate brokers, to help them with the process.

Nicholas Silivanch, a partner in Wilmington-based Eastern Carolinas Commercial Real Estate, said he, too, has been getting calls.  

“We’re doing broker’s opinions of value left and right to help our clients navigate the tax value hikes and appeal them because some of the valuations have come back far beyond what market pricing would be for these assets,” said Silivanch, who charges a fee for those opinions.

Morgan said that most of the time, there are two reasons why a property might be over-assessed.

“They just misvalued it and something like an appraisal, or some sales comps or some income and expense information that you could provide the assessor – all those things can be utilized to help identify a correct value for your property,” he said.

The second reason is a factual error.

“Sometimes, the tax assessor might have the wrong square footage of the building. They might have the wrong year built,” said Morgan, who also charges a fee to review assessments. “They might have a mistake on the tax card about the physical characteristics of the property, and those are pretty easy to correct.”

“So far, I have seen several properties that have been significantly overvalued," Morgan said. "However, I have also seen many where the county was spot-on.”

The increase in values could be offset by a tax rate cut.

“There's always a flurry of tax appeal work when a new assessment comes out, especially when values have gone up. Values, for the most part for most properties, have increased over the past four or five years, and people get these assessments, and there's kind of a sticker shock,” he said. “But historically, the county commissioners will reduce the tax rate, and the amount of taxes people actually pay will be consistent with what they've historically paid … We're getting a lot of panic calls, and I'm trying to tell people that the tax rate will be adjusted and everything will be OK.”

New Hanover County officials are in discussions about the tax rate as they work on the next fiscal year’s budget, with some advocating for a lower one than the current 45 cents per $100 of value. In a presentation by county staff at a budget workshop last week, the preliminary recommended budget is balanced with a 35.5-cent property tax rate.