Afternoon Poll: How Much Did Your Real Estate Tax Assessment Rise?

Did you get sticker shock when you opened your 2014 Fairfax County Real Estate Tax Assessment?

Many county residents did. Fairfax County said some 88 percent of residential properties saw an increase from 2013 to 2103. The average increase, was about 6.5 percent, according to county data. About 9 percent of county homeowners saw no change.

In Reston, some homeowners saw a much bigger jump, leading some Realtors to say, anecdotally, that the increase in value expected with the opening of Metro’s Silver Line later this year is already happening.

That is good news if one is trying to sell, but bad news for one’s wallet if staying.

Want to appeal your assessment. Visit the Fairfax County Department of Taxation website.

More from Fairfax County:

During 2013 the residential market continued to improve in Fairfax County. This market improvement has meant fewer foreclosures, faster sales and price appreciation in most neighborhoods.

The number of days a property was listed for sale decreased from an average of 50 days in 2012, to an average of 36 days in 2013, or an improvement of 28 percent (44 percent of these properties actually sold in 10 days or less).

Sale prices also were closer to their list price than last year, selling on average at about 98% of their list price, providing another indication of the strong residential market.

Residential sales volume in the county increased over 10 percent from 2012 sales, providing staff with more than 14,000 fair market sales to analyze in determining 2014 assessments.

While foreclosures generally have a dampening effect on competitive sale prices, their influence has had much less impact on 2014 assessments due to the decline in foreclosure activity.