Real Estate Taxes In The New River Valley

Taxes.  Everyone's got to pay them, and they never go down.  That's the bad news.

The good news is that by paying taxes, we're contributing to the infrastructure that makes the New River Valley such a great place to live.  But how the heck do they come up with the amount you need to pay?  Well, it's based on the rate that's voting on by the various municipalities, and they're detailed below.  You'll note that some have TWO rates - one is the Town or City rate, added to the County rate.  And should you need more information about a particular location, feel free to use the phone numbers below to contact the taxing authority.

To calculate current yearly tax, take the current assessed value of the home, divide by 100 and multiply by the current tax rate.

The assessed value of the home is $250000 and the home is in Blacksburg:
$250000/100 = 2500 x .93 = 2325  Yearly tax $2325

The following rates are current as of July 1, 2008

Locale	Tax Rate	Phone Number
Blacksburg	$.22 + $.71 = $.93	540-961-1105
Bland County	$.69	540-688-3741
Christiansburg	$.144 + $.71 = $.854	540-382-9519
Craig County	$.52	540-864-6241
Floyd County	$.60	540-745-9345
Giles County	$.63	540-626-7067
Montgomery County	$.71	540-382-5717
Pulaski County	$.62	540-980-7785
Radford City	$.73	540-731-3661
Rich Creek	$.22 + $.63 = $.85	540-726-3260
Town of Floyd	$.60	540-745-9435
Town of Pulaski	$.32 + $.62 = $.94	540-994-8640
Town of Narrows	$.34 + $.63 = $.97	540-726-2423
Town of Pearisburg	$.29 + $.63 = $.92	540-921-0340
Town of Pembroke	$.30 + $.63 = $.93	540-626-7191

Comments

[TL]

Your Cburg rates are incorrect. County plus town's, which was adjusted down effective 7/1/2007 due to Canada and Wade shaming others into keeping it the same after reassessment. You also omitted personal property rates (generally county but sometimes also town/city) and other rates which fully show local tax burden.

[Jeremy Hart]

Thanks TL, for the catch - I've updated as of this morning to reflect the correct $.854 total rate.

I went back and forth with personal property rates, whether to include them or not, but since we were focusing solely on real estate taxes and the post is designed to be a simple resource for homeowners, I decided to leave them out. I'll work that into another post sometime!

[Sean Pecor]

Over here just east of Floyd County in Franklin County, they've just lowered the property tax rate from $0.53 to $0.47. The 12% reduction in rate was nice but it didn't put much of a dent in our 96 acres of forest and farmland tax which (no joke) was newly assessed at $1.1MM. Our house increased modestly to +/- $800K, which was to be expected, but the raw land appreciation was the shocker. Franklin is becoming the Albemarle County of the NewVa region. In 2007 we had an estimated population of 51,000 and it's projected to be pushing 56,000 by 2012. Increasingly the growth is due not to the Lake but to upper middle to upper income commuters into Roanoke (Carilion is only 20 minutes away, downtown 25 minutes away).

We bought a house on Mourning Dove in B'burg in 2004 for $249K and sold is 9 months later for $271K. The B'burg market back then was really humming along! I assume for the most part it still is. I remember one observation back then was that middle income homes were really elevated in price but the higher end homes weren't going for much money (relatively) unless there was acreage. For example, my Mourning Dove house in a comparable neighborhood in Roanoke would not have sold for $271K, more like $215K. However, all else being equal, an upscale 6,000 square foot home could be had in Blacksburg for $650K but it would easily sell for $900K in Roanoke. I just thought that was an interesting if somewhat anecdotal observation. Perhaps because there is a significant bulge in B'burg demographics in the $100K household income band?

Sean

[Jeremy Hart]

Sean -

"Perhaps because there is a significant bulge in B'burg demographics in the $100k household income band?" I find it interesting that two markets could be so closely located geographically but so different in various sectors of their individual markets. But pockets of the market will always move differently than other pockets. Take Blacksburg, for instance - market is still appreciating at almost 5% of what it was last year, with list to sale ratios at ~ 98%, but if you have a condo in Blacksburg you're having a tough time right now. Real estate is local local local.

Thanks for commenting, Sean - Thanks for the firsthand look at Franklin County. I had heard that things were really moving out there, had no idea it was as you described it!