At a Chattanooga City Council meeting, Hamilton County Assessor Marta Hanks and senior appraisal analyst Donnie Bell outlined how the assessor’s office calculates property values, why some districts saw sharp valuation increases from 2021 to 2025 and how the appeals process works.

Hanks said the office uses a mass-appraisal method tied to neighborhood sales and state oversight. “We are only allowed to use residential sales of properties that are similar to yours in age, size, and description,” she told council members, adding that assessors “stay as close as we can within a neighborhood.” The office tracks sales back to 2021 and compiles them in a public home-sales comparison tool on its website.

The explanation matters because council members have been fielding constituent concerns about a 56% change in assessed value reported for one district between 2021 and 2025. Hanks told the council most changes are driven by the number and price of neighborhood sales during the appraisal period, not by one-off transactions, and noted limits on when values can be changed.

Hanks described the timing and mechanics: reappraisals are set to a valuation date (the office said January 1); sales that occur after that date are recorded and influence the next scheduled reappraisal. “If somebody’s already bought it in 2025 and paid $375,000, guess what? It stays at $350,000 until you get all the way out to 2029,” she said, describing how counties on four‑year cycles cannot “chase sales” year to year. Hanks said Hamilton County has used a four‑year reappraisal schedule since 1989.

Hanks and Bell walked council members through how the office groups properties for comparison, removes outliers (top ~30% and bottom ~20% of sales in a neighborhood), and works within roughly 500–600 homes per analysis area where possible. They said new construction is accounted for as growth when a permit or certificate of occupancy is received; new units completed during the year can increase the tax base but do not retroactively change values set for the current reappraisal year.

The assessor’s office also described the appeals pathway: informal reviews after notices are sent, formal applications to the county board of equalization, and — for some commercial taxpayers — appeals to an administrative law judge (ALJ) at the state level. Hanks gave summary counts for the recent reappraisal cycle: about 15,000 informal contacts (calls or emails), roughly 8,000 requests for application to the board of equalization, and approximately 250 formal equalization hearings; for commercial appeals the office received about 950 requests to pursue ALJ review and had about 280 returned so far ahead of an August 1 filing deadline.

Hanks emphasized that property owners may appeal each year and that the county board of equalization is made up of citizen appointees. She said the assessor’s office will lower a value when a review shows an error but generally will not raise a previously set value solely because a taxpayer asked for a review. Donnie Bell was introduced as the office’s analyst who tracks sales countywide.

Council members asked for district‑level breakdowns; Hanks said she would provide data by council district showing 2021 and 2025 values and the number of sales by district to illustrate why some districts experienced larger percentage changes. She left contact information and said staff would distribute the office’s district tables and historical appraisal information.

For residents, Hanks urged use of the assessor’s online sales‑comparison tool and noted there is a formal statutory appeals pathway. She also told council members the assessor’s office will continue to pick up new construction through the late summer for the next tax roll and that the practical deadline to finalize data for the treasurer’s tax roll is roughly early September.

The assessor’s office presentation concluded with a promise to provide the council a district‑by‑district packet showing sales and valuation change so council members could respond to constituent questions with the underlying numbers.

Contact: Marta Hanks, Hamilton County Assessor (office contact supplied during the meeting).