Liberty County’s hot housing market has led to a rise in property values, the county’s chief appraiser told county commissioners.

“Property sales are skyrocketing,” Glenda Roberts told commissioners at their June 20 meeting. “Property values are steadily increasing. Our county is growing.”

One of the biggest drivers of the rising property values is the resale of older properties. Currently, the county has from 3,200 to 3,500 property transfers a year.

“Older properties are selling just as much and in some instances higher than new construction,” Roberts said. “It causes us to have to increase (property values).”

Roberts said her office doesn’t arbitrarily assign property values, as property owners upset with their assessments have charged the appraisers with “picking numbers out of the air,” she said.

“There is a science behind what we do,” Roberts added. “That science is the sales. Typically, one sale in a subdivision is not going to affect your property value. This is a number of sales.”

The assessors mailed out more than 20,000 property assessments on May 7. The board of assessors remains in its appeal period until June 27.

“You may just need to come in and sit down with my staff one-on-one to understand the process,” Roberts said.

The assessors’ office will stay open to 7 p.m. on June 27 to come in and set up an appointment to discuss a property appeal.

“Make sure you are looking at your assessment notice,” Roberts said.

So far, the assessors office has had approximately 300 property assessment appeals filed.

A property owner can file a return on their assessment during January through April. The assessors office’s looks at the property in person after a return is filed.

For a 1,500 square foot home, the fair market value in 2020 was $82,500. In 2024, a house of the same size has a fair market value of more than $146,000. The cost per square foot has gone up from $55 per square foot to almost $98.

As a result, the tax bill has gone from $537.90 in 2020 to nearly $1,240, based on the 2023 millage rates. Those figures, however, don’t include any potential exemptions for homeowners.

Roberts said the assessors’ figures also are struggling to keep up with the values.

“If you were to go out and interview contractors they are somewhere around $110 to $115 a square foot to build a home from the ground up,” she said.

The state does an audit of values as related to sales, Roberts said, and the state mandates and regulates much of what her office does.

In 2020, only one county didn’t have between 36%-44% ratios for their property values in the state. In 2022, there were 49 counties that failed to meet those standards. In fact, the state average was only at 36.8% “In Liberty County, we barely hung on,” Roberts said, adding the county was at 36.3%. “The ratios were getting farther and farther away. Property values were increasing but we weren’t keeping up with what was happening with sales across the state.”

Roberts said commercial properties also are selling, and those are generally valued by front foot and not on acreage.

“If you’ve got commercial property on Highway 84, you’ve got a prime piece of property,” Roberts said. “And we have to value it accordingly.”

Liberty County also has a number of exemptions available for property owners, including the Kemp-DeLoach-Williams Act, which caps a property value at 3% a year, until ownership changes hands.

“KDW is an excellent exemption,” Roberts said.

There also are a number of other exemptions for property owners, especially for those who are senior citizens. One for those age 62 and older is a $15,000 exemption with no income requirements. Another for those at age 65 and older exempts a property owner from the board of education taxes, but there is an income requirement. Another exemption for senior citizens exempts them from solid waste assessments, but that also has an income requirement.

The county also has an exemption for disabled veterans. Property owners must have a letter stating they have a 100% disability that is service-connected. There is no deadline to file for the disabled veteran exemption, but the others have to be filed by April 1 each year.

“There is help that is available,” Roberts said.

Roberts is ending her 35-year career with the assessors July 1. Keith Payne, who had been chief appraiser for McIntosh County, has been selected to succeed her as chief appraiser.