A Penny for Your Thoughts News of Greater Falls Church

By Supervisor Penny Gross

More than 60 people attended last week’s Mason District Budget Town Meeting, a far cry from last year’s attendance of fewer than a dozen. In both meetings, however, residents came to complain about the burden that the real estate tax places on them, especially in the continuing “hot” housing market. Although it appears that the market may be cooling as home mortgage interest rates are almost twice what they were in 2021, the 2023 assessments include the market sales for neighborhood comparables in 2022. If you bought a house in Fairfax County in 2022, your purchase price essentially becomes the market value for assessment purposes. The Virginia Constitution requires that properties be assessed every year, and those assessments must be at fair market value.

About half of residential properties in Mason District had an assessment increase of up to 10 percent; in some neighborhoods, including properties on larger lots and waterfront properties in Lake Barcroft, increased up to 15 percent. The increases were helped by home sales that exceeded both the assessment (which usually lags market value by five to 15 percent) and the asking price.

The mean residential assessment change for Mason District was 6.34 percent, the smallest change of all nine magisterial districts.

Mason District accounts for 8.49 percent of the total taxable base in Fairfax County; Dranesville (which includes Great Falls) accounts for 16.34 percent of the total taxable base.

Some of the criticisms expressed at the budget town meeting are not unfounded. The hot housing market has affected the assessments for 90 percent of the residential properties in Fairfax County and, since the real property tax is the primary source of county revenues allowed by the Commonwealth of Virginia, the burden rests squarely on property owners. Repeated attempts to diversify the tax base for counties largely have been unsuccessful.

In a county with a population of 1.2 million, needed services are extensive; meeting those needs with available revenues is the challenge faced by county leaders. The Board of Supervisors has flexibility to reduce County Executive Hill’s recommendation of a $1.11 tax rate, and I anticipate that most Board members will support a reduction in the rate. Residents who wish to file an administrative appeal to their assessment must do so by April 3, 2023. Find more information about how to appeal an assessment at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/ taxes.

Reactions to a proposal to increase the salary of Board members have been intense, as they are each time a salary increase