Whitney Consultants outlines 2025 revaluation, cautions tax rate unknown until autumn

Whitney Consultants told the Plymouth Select Board on May 27 that the town will complete a full statistical property revaluation for 2025 tied to a software conversion and recent market activity.

The revaluation is being done in part because the town is converting from the Patriot/AssessPRO system to Avatar CAMA and because a Department of Revenue Administration ratio study showed Plymouth’s assessed value at about 82% of market value in 2024, Steve Hamilton of Whitney Consultants said.

Hamilton said the firm has inspected sales, begun market analysis and plans to send individual notices to taxpayers about their new assessments around July 15. He said the town will submit the MS‑1 summary report of value to the Department of Revenue Administration at least by Oct. 1 (the transcript notes the statutory MS‑1 date of Sept. 1 but that DRA routinely allows an extension to October). Informal hearings will follow the mailings so taxpayers can discuss assessments before tax bills are set.

"We have no idea what the tax rate will be, because the tax rate ... is set through the budgetary process," Hamilton said. He added that the revaluation affects the distribution of taxes across property types and that overall tax bills depend on the appropriation to be divided by total assessed value.

Hamilton cited median single‑family sale prices in Plymouth of about $291,000 in 2022, $306,000 in 2023 and $370,000 in 2024 as evidence of recent market increases and told the board that different property classes will change at different rates. He said commercial values typically move on income, vacancy and interest‑rate fundamentals and have not risen as sharply as residential values in recent years.

Town staff and Whitney said they will post the total assessed value for the town on the website along with individual notices, and schedule informal hearings where assessors will review property cards and, where appropriate, correct record errors or update physical descriptions.

Hamilton said the project includes compiling a mass appraisal report compliant with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice and delivering field records to the town for future use.

The board asked about communications; staff said an announcement letter would be drafted in early June and the formal assessment notices would go out in mid‑July, with the DRA tax‑rate setting process completing in October.

Nut Graf: The revaluation is meant to align Plymouth’s assessed values with market activity and with the town’s new CAMA platform; while citizens will receive individual assessment letters in July, the dollar impact on tax bills depends on the October tax‑rate setting process and therefore is not yet known.

Background: Whitney said DRA observed Plymouth’s overall ratio at about 82% in 2024; because assessed values influence how the town’s appropriations are distributed among property owners, relatively faster residential gains can shift more of the tax burden onto homeowners even if overall appropriations remain flat.

Ending: Consultants and staff told the board they will post a timeline and copies of the communications planned for residents and return with updates as the conversion and valuation work proceeds.