By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
The Ellis County appraiser's office has again hit its mark regarding the state's appraisal numbers.
Appraiser Eugene Rupp told the Ellis County Commission earlier this month that his office reported final residential and commercial ratio rates of 96%.
Rupp said the ratio is the median of the county's appraised value of the property and its sale price.
The official residential ratio was 96%, while the commercial ratio was 96.8%.
“We are still a little bit under-appraised,” Rupp said. “But in all honesty, 96% is exactly where I would hope to be.”
According to Rupp, counties are still in compliance as long as they fall within the 10 percent of the state’s confidence interval.
Rupp said the 96 percent value means that properties are actually under-appraised, meaning that, on average, properties in Ellis County are selling for more than their appraised value.
"When we set values in the market, there's always the misconception that we're raising values to raise taxes, and that couldn't be further from the truth," Rupp said. "What we are tasked with is setting the market value for that property."
The appraiser's office analyzes all of the previous year's sales and, according to Rupp, determines the most likely market value for each property based on that analysis.
There were 316 residential sales and 15 commercial sales for 2023, according to the final report.
Rupp said the 15 commercial sales are a “little bit low.”
"I would say on a really low year, we're probably down closer to 10. A Good year, we might have 30," Rupp said. "There's just not as much commercial businesses changing hands."
The county's final assessed value as of Nov. 1st, 2023 was $512,475,588, according to County Administrator Darin Myers.
The estimated assessed valuation as of July 1, 2024 was $536,775,865. The final valuation will be determined by Nov 1st, 2024.
Rupp said that if anyone has a question about their appraisal values, they can reach out to the county appraiser’s office, and they can explain how they arrived at the values.
"It's buyers and sellers that determine what market value is," Rupp said. "What a willing buyer and a willing seller agree to is market value."