By Maggie Lee / Staff

Fulton County's property-valuing exercise has cranked up for 2010, and the head appraiser is cautiously optimistic that house values won't go any lower.

That's because county Chief Appraiser Burt Manning says he's not receiving as many requests to appraise properties as last year.

Due to the economic downturn, "in 2009 we had an unusually large number of TPAs," he said, referring to the Tax Payers' Assessment, also known as the property tax return. That's a document homeowners can file to ask for a new assessment due to major changes in home value.

Manning hopes that his lower volume of requests this year is because "the citizenry is responding to the fact that maybe the market is leveling out." He compared the 2010 volume to the same time in 2009. 

"But," he added quickly, "there's still one month left for homeowners to file."

A Fulton non-profit, however, expects Manning's inbox to get very full before the April 1 TPA deadline.

"We have about twice as many requests for help as last year," said Barbara Payne, executive director of the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation, a group that advocates for lower property taxes. "By April, we expect about three times as much," she continued.

For a fee of $35 FCTF offers a property assessment that Payne said draws on objective sources like real estate data aggregator fmls.com and independent assessments. 

"We can't guess what the county will assess you at," Payne said. "We get info to see if you should proceed."

FULTON COUNTY TAXPAYERS LEAVE MONEY ON THE TABLE

Last year, the county lowered appraisals on 100,000 properties according to Manning; the year before, it was 130,000 properties. 

A February study by the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Project, a non-profit that advocates for mixed-income communities, suggests that Fulton County didn't lower assessments enough during the downturn, especially in the high-foreclosure neighborhoods on which it focuses. 

In the five county metro overall, ANDP calculates each household overpaid property taxes by about $244. In Fulton's highest foreclosure zones, namely three Southside zip codes between I-20 and I-285, by considering the impact of nearby foreclosures each property tax bill could have been reduced by $491.

"Just to let you know," countered Manning, "The Fulton County Board of Assessors is very aware of recent changes in value and we are working diligently to have fair valuations."

Each year, Fulton identifies the property that most needs re-appraising. But filing a TPA ensures that a house gets on the county's to-do list. Once homeowners receive assessments, they have another 45 days to appeal the assessment.  All of Fulton's relevant documents are on the Board of Assessors website.

GOLD DOMER'S GET INVOLVED

A bill now in the state Senate would require every county in the state to send property owners an annual valuation of their home and make the appeal process more obvious.  But since the legislature has ceased all work for two weeks save on fixing the massive hole in the 2011 budget, there's been no hearing scheduled for the bill. 

There's also a house resolution sponsored by Rep. Ed Lindsay (R-Atlanta) that would let citizens vote in a statewide referendum for a constitutional amendment to cap assessment hikes at nine percent per three-year interval.

It didn't pass last year, but "I think he may have it this time," said Rep. Jan Jones (R-Milton), Speaker Pro Tem of the House. "I'm hopeful that we'll have it on the floor again and put it on the ballot." She called it the "right thing" to do.