Burke County's Tax Revaluation Task Force spent its second meeting reviewing the county's computerized mass appraisal system and the sales data that staff will use to prepare a new schedule of values for the 2027 revaluation.

The presenter, introduced as Miss Nelson, told the task force the purpose of the meeting was to "walk you through the process of a reevaluation and sort of build up the case for how we come up with values," and stressed the system is driven by market sales rather than being a "black box." She said Burke County uses CAMA ("CAMA is, acronym for computer assisted mass appraisal," an unidentified staff member added) to organize about 60,000 parcels into 13 townships and roughly 1,000 market areas and to apply countywide building schedules alongside market-area land pricing.

Why it matters: county staff must bring assessments into line with market values while applying consistent rules across tens of thousands of parcels. That process determines each property's assessed value and, therefore, each homeowner's share of the tax burden even when the county's total levy remains unchanged.

What staff presented: Nelson showed how CAMA breaks each parcel into land, building and miscellaneous-improvement components and applies grade, condition and size adjustments before adding depreciation. Using a sample parcel (REID 18533), staff demonstrated calculating replacement cost new, applying a size factor and depreciation to produce an assessed value. Nelson said the county's current schedule of values is the 2023 schedule and will be updated for 2027.

Sales and ratios: staff reported 4,700 qualified sales since 2023 (4,493 residential and 229 commercial). Key metrics presented included a median per-square-foot sale price of $153, an average of $161 per square foot (pulled up by higher-priced properties), a median year built of 1978 and median sold size of about 1,400 square feet. For vacant land the median price-per-acre figure was described as roughly $21,000.

Staff emphasized sales-ratio analysis to identify where corrections are required. "The sales ratio is the assessed value divided by sales," Nelson said; she showed township-level examples where vacant and improved ratios diverged (for example, Jonas Ridge vacant 0.775 vs. improved 0.692; Morganton vacant 0.96 vs. improved 0.78), indicating land pricing or the schedule of values may need targeted adjustments.

Methodology and next steps: staff described two technical steps that will shape final recommended values. "Trending" adjusts older sales to current market conditions, and "clustering" groups market areas with sparse sales to reach reliable sample sizes. Nelson said clustering would be finished that week and that vacant-land pricing would be completed and shared in January. The task force was told final schedule-of-values decisions and the recommended changes to size and other adjustments are expected to be vetted by the expert group before presentation to the county commissioners late in 2026.

Votes and formal actions: the chair requested a motion to accept the county's sales list and sales-ratio analysis; the motion was moved and seconded (the transcript identifies the second as Evan). The chair then asked members to accept the presenter's briefing; the motion passed by voice/consensus in the meeting record. Earlier in the meeting members moved and seconded approval of the meeting agenda and of the minutes from the first meeting. The meeting adjourned after a voice motion; the next meeting was announced for 2026-01-06 at 9:00 a.m.

Context and caveats: staff noted that state statute generally requires revaluations within an eight-year cycle but that deviations are triggered if sales ratios stray beyond statutory thresholds; the transcript referenced the 115%/85% thresholds that can force a revaluation within two years. Task force members also discussed how specialty markets (lakefront properties, custom construction) and out-of-county buyers shift local sales patterns and why the schedule-of-values includes prime-site/balance landlines and size adjustments to reflect those differences.

What to watch: task force members asked staff to provide township-level dollar summaries of sales and to continue refining clustering and trending so the group can reach agreement on the schedule-of-values choices (land pricing, size adjustments, grade distinctions) that will be applied to Burke County's parcels for the 2027 tax year.