ROANOKE CO., Va.—
Are Roanoke County's real estate assessments inflated?Some residents think so, prompting county leaders to call for an audit.
Now the results of that audit are in.
County leaders have said all along real estate assessments are on the up and up.
To prove it, the Board of Supervisors ordered a state review and the findings show there was nothing wrong.
County leaders called for an outside audit after some citizens and realtors noticed some wrong information on the county's website.
In some cases, the sales price listed on the county's real estate webpage was not the actual sales price paid for the property, but rather the county's tax assessed value.
"This concern left some citizens wondering if new assessments were somehow inflated by the inaccurate sales price information," county administrator Clay Goodman said.
In a 25 page report, Virginia's Department of Taxation found while the incorrect sales price listed on the website was confusing, the information was not the data that the Roanoke County Real Estate Assessors used to determine property values.
Therefore, assessments were not inflated.
County leaders hope the state audit will put this controversy to bed.
"They write the rules that localities have to follow so when they review you and give you a report you can take it to the bank because they are a state agency, they don't have a dog in this fight so they're going to tell you exactly how it is," Board of Supervisors Chairman Richard Flora said.
With that being said, county leaders acknowledge information on the county's website needs to be right.
They believe a computer software program should fix the problem and it won't cost a lot of money.
Click here to read the news release from Roanoke County, and click here to read the entire report.
