Keeping up with the Joneses
Nobody likes a nosy neighbor, but the folks next door will never know that you can find out how much their house is worth and how much they paid for it.
Thanks to your local governments, you can find out tax values for your house, your neighbors' digs or that house with the "For Sale" sign that you've been eyeing. All from the comfort of your computer.
Guilford County, Greensboro and High Point each have their own "GIS Viewers," and they all work a little different. I'll go through a basic guide to look up a property on each system.
You can also use the magnifying glass to zoom in on a specific area. Once you've found the parcel, click on the lowercase i button at the top right and then click on the area you want information about.
Some systems have more detail than others, but if you're looking for the value of the property, it's listed as "tax value" or "assess value". It's what the county's Tax Department uses to calculate property tax, and North Carolina law requires it to be as close to the market value as the tax department can make it. They just finished their revaluation this January, so the figures are pretty recent.
Go ahead. Feel free to be nosy.
Update: Commenter Sam Zealy points out that some of the data in the Greensboro system hasn't been updated since the most recent valuation. The most accurate information is listed in the county's system, though if you live in Greensboro or High Point, you won't see a map. You can also find the complete file on a property at this address.
Comments (2)
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Good tool and neat graphics. However (in my case)the tax assessed value does not represent the most recent valuations. I have lived in my house since new in 1986 and the tax value listed is the same as it was in the last valuation (1996 I believe).
Posted on September 14, 2004 2:46 PM
Sam,
What system is your property listed in? I had thought Greensboro updated theirs, but maybe I was mistaken. If they haven't been updated, I'll be sure to put that proviso in the post.
Posted on September 14, 2004 3:01 PM