Real estate assessments are up in the Central Virginia area.
I could not fit all of this in my February note, but I wanted to be able to reference the following.
Real estate assessments pay for our schools.
And education is one of the most important things that our government provides for.
Assessments go up. Assessments go down. In Albemarle and Charlottesville, properties are reassessed every year. This year, Albemarle was up 13.46% and Charlottesville 12.33%. up Some localities reassess less frequently — Madison County looks to reassess every six years; imagine that shock.
Albemarle County
In recent years, school division operations are approximately 50% of the expenditure side of the county budget, while real property assessments are between 42% and 47% of revenues in the county budget.
From the County:
… the short answer is that the % of expenditures for the School Division and the % of revenues that come from real property fluctuates year-to-year.
The pies below are clipped from the annual community report. In FY 22, ~56% of revenues went to School operating, capital, and debt service and ~46% of revenues were from property taxes.
The budget document for FY 23 shows 42% of tax revenue from real property taxes and total revenues to schools at 59%.
Charlottesville City
From Charlottesville Community Engagement:
“We continue the strong commitment to education by allocating up to 40 percent of new city real estate and property tax revenues to schools,” Rogers said. “Now, this is a policy, this is a guideline. This is not written in stone except through the adoption of the budget.”
Answering the “What are the Best Schools” Question
What are the “best” schools? That is a question that I don’t answer and my clients all understand this.
My answer has evolved to a combination of what I used to say, which is that “best” depends on what that means to you, your family, and your kid. Now, I explicitly address race, saying that my profession was instrumental in segregation and that we no longer want to be part of perpetuating homogenous schools.
My kids’ best is going to be different than your kids’ best, which is different than someone else’s best.
Related: Charlottesville or Albemarle County Schools? and Look Beyond Test Scores When Evaluating Schools