News Flash

Jan. 23, 2019 - A majority of Hampton homeowners – almost 60 percent – will find their homes have increased in value this year. That’s the biggest boost in home values in more than a decade and a sign of “slow, steady growth,”  said City Assessor Gary James.

“This is very positive news," said City Manager Mary Bunting. "For most of us, our biggest investment is our home. We want to know our investment is growing in value."

Overall, residential values in the city increased 1.74 percent, said James, who joined the city this week. Last year, residential values rose 0.64 percent.

"This is almost three times as much growth as we had last year," said James. "It's small, but it's steady."

New construction contributed some of that value, so the increase for existing homes was closer to 1.45 percent. As for the city as a whole, the value of taxable property grew by a slightly larger amount, 1.91 percent, boosted by the 3.87 percent gain in multi-family housing.

There were a few scattered areas of value declines, but they were small. See the map. Overall, the Hampton residential real estate market continues to see positive signs, said James, including increasing median sales prices and decreasing foreclosures. 

Homeowners whose assessment have changed will be getting a postcard with the new valuation. Those will be mailed Monday, Jan. 28. The new assessments will also be available on that day in the city’s GIS system at Hampton.gov/gis, where residents can search for their address.

Assessed values lag the market by more than a year. The city determines valuation of properties as of Jan. 1, 2019 for the tax bills that cover the next fiscal year (2020), which are due Dec. 5, 2019 and Jun 5, 2020. As of now, the assessed value of all taxable property in the city is just over $11 billion. The total value of all property is $14.6 billion, before all exemptions.

As to the future, James cited several residential, multi-family and commercial development projects in various stages of development, many of which will be added to the tax rolls before or during fiscal 2020. Those are not included in the land value or tax projections until they are completed and open. He predicted the 1.91 percent growth would rise to 2 percent when the fiscal year begins.

Information about the assessment process and the appeals process can be found at www.hampton.gov/assessor. 

James comes to Hampton with 26 years of certified real estate appraisal experience, working as an independent fee commercial and residential appraiser in New Jersey before transitioning into local government assessment working in Maine and South Carolina. He most recently served as assessor in Beaufort County, S.C.  Libby Griebel had been serving as acting assessor.