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Jones County assessors approve raising building cost table from $95 to $110 per square foot
Summary
Assessors voted to increase the building cost factor used in valuations from $95 to $110 per square foot to improve sales-ratio results ahead of a planned countywide reevaluation.
Jones County assessors voted May 8 to raise the building-cost factor used in the county's valuation tables from $95 to $110 per square foot for 2025 assessments.
Assessors said the adjustment more closely aligns cost-based valuations with recent sales and asking prices in Jones County and improves the county's sales-ratio measures. "We've now adjusted that, recommend recommended that figure go to $11,010 a foot... we would get our ratio using those revised numbers against sales from 24 and 25 to over 38%," an assessor staff member said during the meeting. (Transcript phrasing corrected for numeric clarity: staff recommended $110 per square foot.)
Why this matters: staff said the revised $110-per-square-foot figure projects the county's sales ratio to about 38.5 percent—closer to the benchmark used in the sales ratio study—and would result in utilities paying their full amount under current calculations. Staff cautioned the coefficient of dispersion (COD) would not be resolved until the county's full reassessment is completed.
Board action: a board member moved to increase the cost per square foot to $110 "as recommended by the acting chief appraiser," and the motion passed with an affirmative vote. The acting chief appraiser, identified in the meeting as Jim, presented the staff recommendation and answered questions from assessors.
Background and next steps: assessors said the increase is an interim data-table change for 2025 and does not replace the planned countywide reevaluation; staff said the reevaluation, if funded by the commissioners, will address remaining dispersion issues.
