Village could get revaluation done in 2025

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press staff

Revaluations aren’t going to win a popularity contest, but one is necessary in the near future in the Village of Belgium.

The village has been out of compliance with the state Department of Revenue on its property assessment for three years in a row, meaning its property values are less than 90% of full market value.

A fourth year out of range will elicit a letter of noncompliance from the department, Village Clerk Julie Lesar told the Finance and Personnel Committee on Monday.

The village slid out of compliance in 2020, when valuations fell to 89.71%. In 2021, they were 85.79% and in 2022 they were 74.44%.

Property appraiser Les Ahrens of Grota Appraisals said he projects the values will be around 70.5% in 2023.

The village has until 2025 to do a revaluation. Ahrens said the village has a contract with Grota through 2025 and “we owe you a revaluation” as part of that agreement.

When to do the revaluation became the question for the committee.

Ahrens said it could be done in 2024 or 2025. He recommended the later date due to market trends.

“The market’s changing now from appreciating really, really fast to a slower appreciation rate, and I have a feeling that with interest rates continuing to rise, we’re going to build a little inventory in the market and things are going to level off a little bit more,” Ahrens said.

That, he said, would set the village up for the most success.

“I think people would maybe be a lot more comfortable since we’re using sales from the market after it changed when interest rates were 7%, 8%, 9% let’s say, rather than 5% transitioning up to 8%,” Ahrens said.

The revaluation would use sales from the last two or three-year period. Doing the revaluation in 2025 would use sales from 2024 and 2023, giving a better picture with higher interest rates.

Going through the process in 2024 would use a transition year of 2023 and a hot year of sales in 2022, Ahrens said.

“I think that makes the most sense to get the most current information at that time,” committee member Dan Wolff said.

“I agree,” committee member Rose Sauers said.

Committee Chairman and Village President Pete Anzia was on board as well, but he knows what is coming, regardless of the interest rates.

“It’s going to make a lot of people unhappy, though, right?” he said.

“Revaluations are always tough, there’s no doubt about it,” Ahrens said. “Being that our level of assessment is already around 70%, it would be a fairly large increase.”

Grota will do an in-house market update, recalibrating its models in analyzing property sales from the last two or three years.

“Once we get to a point where we feel comfortable that our model is replicating those sale prices,” Ahrens said, “then we go ahead and we apply that model to all the nonsale properties, and then we circle back and do a thorough individual review with maps to each individual property.”

The valuation model does a nice job with 90% of the properties, he said. The other 10% require some manual manipulation for a host of reasons, such as a property is closer to the freeway than others, backs up to an industrial park or is next to a tavern.

The committee unanimously recommended that the Village Board approve doing the revaluation in 2025.