How much is your house worth? Lexington County residents could get new answer on tax bill
Lexington County residents could see their home values rise in the new year — along with their taxes.
Officials will be wrapping up the reassessment process Lexington County carries out every five years, taking an inventory of property values in the county and what any changes could mean for the county’s property taxes.
Under state law, the county assessor reevaluates property values every five years. Those property values go into a formula that, combined with taxes imposed by local school districts and municipalities, determine how much a resident will have to pay in property taxes.
Lexington County will mail out notices to residents next spring, said county assessor Rick Dolan. The county’s last reassessment took place in 2020, and new assessment will be done once the assessor’s office has collected all the data on Lexington County property transactions in calendar year 2024. Richland County residents already received their reassessment notices this past summer.
Data from the S.C. Association of Realtors shows that the median sale price of a Lexington County home at the beginning of 2020 was around $150,000, down from a spike of more than $200,000 in 2019. But home sales exploded in the ensuing years, hitting a peak of around $400,000 in late 2022. All those high-price sales in recent years could impact the assessment of many local communities.
Morris Lyles, a realtor with ERA Wilder, says there’s a simple reason for those price hikes.
“I think that it is like a lot of the Midlands, it’s growing,” Lyles said, and partly because local governments have taken measures to try to limit new development, “We have more demand than we have supply.”
“Nobody wants all these new neighborhoods because of traffic and other concerns, but if you have more people without new houses, the demand outpaces the supply,” leading to bigger price tags on home listings and rising property values,” Lyles explained.
Even if a homeowner receives a large reassessment on their house, it doesn’t necessarily mean a bigger tax bill will follow. While properties that have changed hands in the last five years will be assessed at the latest sales price, South Carolina law limits an increase in a home’s taxable value to 15%. That means that on a home valued at $100,000 back in 2020 but now valued at $200,000, the homeowner will only have to pay taxes on $115,000.
”During reassessment, the purpose is not to get the county a windfall of tax money,” said Lexington County Auditor Chris Harmon, the official tasked with calculating tax rates, adding that the calculation set out in state law allows local governments to adjust rates so they’re not charging residents too much.
The process is somewhat complicated by the fact each municipality and school district in the county sets its own rate for tax purposes. The S.C. Department of Revenue holds a workshop for all the taxing agencies on the formula they will need to use, Harmon said.
If homeowners think their assessment is too high, they have 90 days to file an appeal with the assessor’s office. Officials warn it will be too late if you wait until tax notices go out at the end of 2025.
”There’s a tear-off portion at the bottom so they can appeal,” said Dolan, the assessor. “Then you can send it in and set up an appointment to discuss it with us.”
The assessor will make at least two attempts to decide what the true market value of a property is. Homeowners who are still dissatisfied can take their case to the board of assessment appeals, or even take a case to court.
Lyles said he has clients who have successfully appealed assessments that exceeded the 15% cap. He always encourages his clients to appeal and see if they can win a reduction, something Lexington County’s assessor welcomes once residents receive their notices.
“Just tear it off and sign it and we’ll be in touch,” said Dolan.
This story was originally published December 9, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
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