Cyclical Home Inspections

From: Avitar Associates of NE

For tax year 2023, all property values will be updated to market value as of April 1, 2023. With the real estate market fluctuating over the past few years, many property owners will see values increase substantially; however, some may not increase by the same percentage as others, as it is heavily dependent on the sale properties, location, quality, size, condition, previous assessment, etc. Just because some values increase or decrease, DOES NOT NECESSARILY mean that your taxes will increase or decrease.

Taxes are based on the combined budgets for the Town, school and county. The tax rate is determined by taking the total of those budgets divided by the overall value of the Town to arrive at a tax rate to “pay the bills”. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine the impact of the update until after the values are finalized and until after the NH Department of Revenue Administration (DRA) calculates the total amount of money needed to “pay the bills”. That process takes place in the fall, usually in October, with the Town’s tax rate the end result.   As part of this process, Avitar assessing staff members over the years have attempted to visit every property to verify that the physical data is accurate. This is especially important for the sale properties as they become the basis for the new values. Once we analyze the sales and develop preliminary values, there will be a field review of the entire town, which is just a drive-by parcel by parcel of every property to verify location, site characteristics, quality and so forth to be consistent as possible. Please know the cycled inspection process has been done over the prior period and there was an attempt to measure and list every property during that time.

Once the preliminary process is complete notices with the new preliminary values will be mailed to every property owner. That notice will include information so that you can schedule a phone appointment to speak with an Avitar representative to discuss your assessment, should you have any questions.  Also included in the notice are instructions to access the online database and review the information about your property and every other property in town, including the sale properties that were used to help establish the new values.As part of this process, the DRA has some oversight responsibilities, which includes visiting a sampling of those properties to verify data accuracy and monitoring the hearing process.  Once the update has been completed, Avitar will deliver to the Town a manual which describes the process in detail. The DRA will also review that manual for compliance with applicable state law.