Prince William Property Assessments Top $41 Billion

Woodbridge, Va. –– Prince William County put the property tax appraisal in the mail.

County employees this week mailed out 134,200 property tax assessments to the owners of homes, apartment complexes and commercial buildings.

Officials say the assessed value of properties varies in different locations in the county, but that overall Prince William’s real estate tax base increased 6.3 percent over the last year.

The assessed value of the county’s real estate is now valued at $41.5 billion, up $2.4 billion the last year, according to county officials.

Of the 1,740 new homes built in Prince William in the past year, each on average assesses at $342,000.

The value of apartment complexes went up too, a total of 11.9 percent in the previous year. The construction of new apartment complexes added 3.9 percent to the county’s apartment tax base, officials said.

It’s much the same story for commercial buildings, as values there increased 3.2 percent 2011.

While 961,000 square feet of commercial space was built in 2011 and assessed, 700,000 square feet of commercial space, including schools, churches and fire stations, were exempted from the assessment.

After receiving their assessments in the mail, property owners have the right to appeal the assessment if they don’t believe it is within the fair market value.

Property owners have until July 1 to appeal to Prince William County’s Real Estate Assessments Office.