Tim Durkin, Town of Inlet Assessor, has announced that the preliminary equalization rate for the town is currently at 99.08 percent, and that there is no need for Inlet to conduct a revaluation.
Durkin said that the last time Inlet had a revaluation done was in 2008.
“The equalization rate is something the state does. It is basically the ratio of the assessed value, divided by the full market value of all of the properties in town, which would be commercial, residential, vacant land, and state owned land,” Durkin said.What has happened over the last several years, according to Durkin, is that the market values have dropped somewhat, or more accurately, leveled off, and that the assessors watch the market as closely as they can to keep the statistics as up to date as possible.
“This time of year we meet with state of New York representatives and we talk about what the trends have been in the market, and the sales that we’ve put in are.”
Typically, he said, five years of sales are used.
In 2009, Inlet was at a 94.9 percent overall rate, and the level of assessment was then rounded up to 95 percent.
Then, he explained, as market forces took control, Inlet went up to 95.61 percent in 2010 and because the state rounds up five percent, from the state’s perspective, Inlet’s level of assessment was rounded up to a hundred percent.
Then in 2011, Inlet was at a level of 96.11 percent and, because of the five percent, Inlet’s level of assessment was rounded to 100 percent again.
“The basic theory on that [the 5%], is that real estate, assessments, and sale prices are not a real, real, precise market,” Durkin said,
“There is some uncertainty involved, obviously, so the state decided years ago that plus or minus five percent was as precise as they could get it, so that’s why they round up,” he added.
