Residential Property
The assessment of your residential property is based on the market value as of January 1st of each year. The PVA gathers characteristics about each property, researches local sales, and utilizes valuation models to determine your property assessment.
A team of PVA Field Assessors locate new and existing properties, measure the structures using American National Standard Institute standards, gather property characteristics, as well as sketch and photograph the improvements. All Field Assessors drive marked vehicles, carry signed identification badges, wear shirts with the PVA logo. KRS 132.220(3) grants the assessors the legal right to measure the exterior dimensions of a structure in the absence of the owner. Assisting them will eliminate the need to estimate characteristics of improvements that lead to inaccurate assessments. If you have a question about a Field Assessor, please call the PVA office at 859-334-2181.
The PVA must prepare value estimates for a large number of properties. To accomplish this, automated valuation models are used by a computer assisted mass appraisal system (CAMA). The CAMA system utilizes the cost approach, which is then adjusted for each PVA neighborhood using data from “valid arm’s-length transactions” (valid sales). The Residential Department is staffed with well trained deputies that review thousands of transfers of residential properties each year to search for valid sales. In other words, sales in Boone County determine the value of characteristics such as age, location, garages, and bathrooms which are then applied to similar properties nearby by the CAMA system. To ensure a fair and equitable assessment, the CAMA system is monitored by staff to check for quality, depreciation, and location adjustments.
A performance analysis determines whether values are equitable and consistent with the market. In mass appraisal, the primary tool for analysis is the ratio study, which is conducted annually. The allowable range for assessment/sales ratio studies is 90 to 110% as mandated by the State of Kentucky Revenue Department.
The International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) is a professional organization with which many of our staff members are associated. IAAO helps establish the best practices and standards for performing tax assessments, including statistical measures for evaluating the quality of assessment work. The widely accepted measure of quality in the tax assessment field is the coefficient of dispersion (COD) and the median of assessment/sale ratios in each of the PVA neighborhoods. The reason for wide acceptance of COD as the standard measure is that quality of assessment work is measured in terms of uniform treatment of every property to insure the highest degree of equity and fairness for individual property owners relative to one another.
If this is not the information you are looking for, please review our Frequently Asked Questions section. You may also contact Customer Service at 859-334-2181 or email pva@boonecountyky.org with your questions.