Opinion

Reassessment in Claremont

By Dale Girard
MAYOR OF CLAREMONT
The City of Claremont is conducting a community-wide property reassessment, which involves reviewing the assessed values of all properties to ensure they reflect their current market values. It is important to note that the last time a full reassessment was conducted was five years ago.

An appraiser from Vision Government Solutions will be contacting all property owners to request a walk-through of your property. This provides the ability to evaluate the condition of the property. This process will be consistent for single family, multifamily and commercial property.

Through the reassessment, property values are updated to align with the current market worth. Some properties may see an increase in assessed value, while others may experience a decrease or remain relatively unchanged.

Following the reassessment, tax rates will be adjusted to maintain a revenue-neutral position. The purpose of tax rate adjustments is to ensure that the total tax revenue collected remains the same, despite changes in assessed property values. The goal of a revenue-neutral approach is to balance the impact of the reassessment on individual property owners. It seeks to distribute the tax burden fairly by adjusting tax rates so that the total revenue collected remains unchanged compared to the previous assessment cycle.

By using this revenue-neutral approach, some property owners may experience a decrease in taxes if their property values have increased less than the average, while others may face higher taxes if their property values have risen by more than the average. The overall intention is to distribute the tax burden more equitably based on the updated property values. Because of this, about one-third of property owners will see their tax bills go up, about one-third will see their tax bills go down and the one-third will see their taxes stay about the same.

The State of New Hampshire requires property assessments to be within the range of 90% to 110% of the current sales values. As of April 2022, Claremont was at 56% of the market value. This information is based upon data kept by the Municipal and Property Division of the NH Department of Revenue Administration Municipal.

After the reassessments have been finished, property owners will receive their revised assessments. The letter will contain information on how you can appeal the new value. You may also contact the Assessing Office’s staff for help by calling 603-542-7004.

The new values will provide the City with a total value of all properties, which will create our “grand list.” An increased grand list will lower the the Local, County and schools tax rates. Once the grand list is created the tax rates will be set in the fall. If spending doesn’t change, the tax rates will fall by the same percentage as the increase in the grand list.

We appreciate your cooperation and patience throughout this reassessment process. Our goal is to establish a fair and transparent system that benefits all residents of the City of Claremont.

As a reminder, taxpayers will be receiving quarterly tax vouchers in the mail shortly. The vouchers will be based upon the current tax assessments. We hope to set the new tax values and rates with the January tax voucher.

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