What is a Statistical Revaluation?

The Town has hired KRT Appraisal (KRT) to complete a Statistical Revaluation, hereinafter called “Revaluation”. A Statistical Revaluation is the revaluation of all taxable and nontaxable properties in a Municipality while establishing a new base year, to arrive at full and true value as of April 1, 2024. The end goal is for assessments to be adjusted to reflect market value as of April 1, 2024. This creates equity and ensures a fair distribution of the tax burden across all property owners in the Town of Haverhill.

Stages of a Statistical Revaluation

KRT will be updating existing grading and pricing schedules for property valuations and maintaining the existing valuation system by performing a Revaluation of assessment values. To accomplish this, KRT will complete four phases: (1) Sales Review, (2) Market Analysis/Valuation, (3) Field Review, and (4) Informal Hearings. During these phases, many tasks will be completed to ensure the Revaluation is successful. Below is a general outline and explanation of each phase of the project.

PHASE 1: SALES REVIEW/VALIDATION: During this phase, KRT appraisers will field review each property that sold between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, and review the information on the property record card for data accuracy. The appraiser will make notes regarding the property location, size, condition, quality of construction, and numerous other characteristics that may affect value. The goal is to gain a clear understanding of what sold and for what price. In conjunction with the Assessing Office, KRT will begin the process of qualifying sales as “arm’s length”. Only sales with market exposure between a willing buyer and willing seller (in other words, an “arm’s length” sale) will be used in the analysis.

PHASE 2: MARKET ANALYSIS/VALUATION: A variety of resources are used to analyze the real estate market. KRT will be analyzing property sales that occurred between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, to determine which market factors influenced property values. KRT will gather and use information from Multiple Listing Service (MLS), property managers, developers, and local real estate professionals. Once all the data is collected and reviewed for accuracy, the appraiser will determine land values and delineate neighborhoods, which rate the desirability of locations throughout the Town as determined by actual market activity. Valuation is done using one of the three recognized appraisal methods: Cost Approach, Income Approach and Sales Comparable Approach. Mass appraisal uses a market adjusted cost approach to generate assessments.

During this phase, individual characteristics of the buildings are analyzed using information gathered in phase 1. Each property is compared to other comparable properties with similar characteristics. Then the market values of the improvements are added to the land value that was previously determined. This value is the final estimate for each parcel of property, building and land.

PHASE 3: FIELD REVIEW: Field Review is the method of checking and re-checking both the values that have been determined and the accuracy of the data used. During this phase, properties are viewed in the field by experienced appraisers to ensure that the appraisal methodology established from the sale properties is consistently applied to the entire population of properties within the Town.

PHASE 4: INFORMAL HEARINGS: Once the Field Review is completed and the values are approved by the Assessor’s Office, a notice stating the proposed value will be mailed to each property owner. The goal is for this phase to be completed in August of 2024. At that time anyone with questions concerning the revaluation process or the value established for their property will have an opportunity to meet with a member of KRT’s staff. After all four phases are completed, all data, files, records, etc. used in the revaluation will be turned over to the Assessor’s Office for retention.

Current State of the Market

Most homeowners today understand that the real estate market has risen dramatically over the last couple of years. This has caused the Town’s Equalization ratio (assessment to sale ratio) to drop below 60%. This would indicate an anticipated average assessment increase of over 80%. It will be common to see this level of increase across most properties, with some rising more and some less. As a result, the tax rate will be lowered to account for the increase in assessments.

Contract Assessing

KRT Appraisal provides general assessing expertise for the Town of Haverhill on an as needed basis. Some of the duties include meeting with taxpayers, administering current use, building permits, reviewing abatement applications and making recommendations to the Board of Assessor’s, completing the MS-1 and other forms required by the State of New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration.