Tax assessor outlines 2025 digest growth, new state rules and appeal deadlines

Cherokee County Board of Commissioners work session — June 17, 2025

Trey Stevens, deputy chief at the Cherokee County Tax Assessor’s Office, briefed commissioners on 2025 assessment statistics, legal changes from the General Assembly and the schedule for assessment notices.

Key points

- Legislative changes: Stevens summarized several recent state laws that affect local assessments and taxpayer options. He identified House Bill 581 (creating a statewide floating homestead exemption and removing a one‑year sales lock), House Bill 92 (establishing estimated rollback reporting and clarifying a five‑acre maximum for the floating homestead), and HB808 (raising the tangible personal property exemption from $7,500 to $20,000 effective Jan. 1, 2025). He also cited a local bill (SB388) creating a 100% school tax exemption for qualifying seniors age 62+ who have held a Cherokee County homestead exemption for five years; Stevens said the county is already processing applications under that rule.

- Effect on notices and appeals: Stevens said the assessor’s office mailed assessment notices June 16 and that property owners have a 45‑day appeal period ending Thursday, July 31. He said the new notice boxes will display net taxable values and an estimated rollback for school levies, but will omit several previously listed line items (park bond, fire tax) and that taxing jurisdictions must provide estimated rollback rates within 15 days of the assessor’s notice to avoid an estimated tax showing on the notice.

- Personal property and exemptions: Stevens said HB808 increases the tangible personal property exemption to $20,000; boats and other personal property under that value are now non‑taxable for 2025. He also described the change to the 3‑year appeal lock (often cited as code section 48.5.299C in industry discussion) that limits prior loopholes used to “lock” values through strategic appeals.

Digest and quality metrics

Stevens reported 114,830 total taxable parcels for 2025. Of those, 85,063 parcels increased in value, 17,959 decreased and 11,808 showed no change. He said the assessor’s office received 6,430 new homestead exemption applications and 14,375 applications to add surviving spouses after a county mailer encouraged eligible residents to apply.

Assessment quality measures are within required ranges: the overall median on a 100% scale is 0.987 (equivalent to 0.3948 on the 40% assessment level), the coefficient of dispersion (COD) is 4.82 (below the 15% threshold for residential) and the price‑related differential (PRD) is 1.0051 (within the 0.95–1.10 acceptable range). Stevens said those figures reflect staff efforts to align valuations with 2024 sales used in the 2025 digest.

Market context and timing

Stevens showed a 10‑year trend of average home values in Cherokee County rising from about $229,800 in 2016 to $525,000 in 2025, noting accelerated increases following 2020. He said the county’s gross digest growth is about 8.97% (real property growth 4.65% plus inflation 4.32%) and that the Department of Revenue conducts a full review of the county digest in 2025.

On process and assistance

Stevens said the assessor’s office will accept appeals by mail, fax or in person and that staff will assist taxpayers who view their evaluations online before their physical notice arrives. He warned that some taxpayers will have questions because the notice format and exemption windows changed under the recent laws.

Ending

Stevens closed by inviting questions; commissioners discussed grandfathering of certain exemptions for 2024 applicants and clarified that appeals and homestead filings will be processed under the new statutory windows.