Gwinnett property owners may get good news

By Patrick Fox

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gwinnett County mailed approximately 124,000 real property notices of change in assessment Friday, most with good news.

"Many property owners will see value decreases for 2010," said chief appraiser Steve Pruitt.

This is the first of three mailings expected to reach a total of 150,000 notices. About 140,000 of the notices are value updates. The rest are the result of new construction or tax returns filed by property owners.

"The 140,000 value change notices issued this year plus the 65,000 issued last year will cover almost all of the residential properties within the county, Pruitt said.”

Pruitt said the appraisal staff reviewed market transactions in all of the county’s 1,400 neighborhoods and changed values where data supported the adjustments.

The vast majority of the 120,000 residential property notices issued in the first batch will show an average value decrease of 17 percent or $35,000 of market value, Pruitt said. The sum of all decreases for residential property totals approximately $4.2 billion of market value.

About 32,000 real property tax returns were filed this year, up 125 percent over 2009. Appeals from the notices must be filed within 30 days from the date on the notice. All appeals must be in writing and either postmarked or hand-delivered by the deadline. A staff appraiser will review the additional information in the appeal and make changes if necessary.