A valuation Update is the process of updating all or part of a municipality for the purpose of either bringing all values to 100% of the current market value, or bringing a class of property, such as vacant land ,commercial properties or waterfront properties (which tend to appreciate and depreciate at different rates then normal residential property), back in line with the rest of the municipality. The purpose of this is so that all properties are valued fairly and represent an equitable portion of the market. If your general level of assessment, your "Assessment to Sales Ratio" is 85% of market value, then all properties are assessed at approximately 15% less than the true market value. Since all classes of property are assessed in this manner, then it is a fair and equitable assessment. However, if your general level of assessment is 85% and an analysis of your waterfront properties reveals they are assessed at 50% of market value, then a disproportionality exists that must be corrected. A valuation update could be used to bring the waterfront properties to 85% of market value, so all properties are assessed proportionally or the entire Town could be updated so assessments reflect 100% of market value. Thoses decisions are left for the Town and are often dependent upon available funding. As long as all properties are at the same general level, then assessments are fair and equitable.

These programs generally do not include re-measuring and inspecting the properties, but are statistical in nature, require a verification of sales data, a re-creation of cost tables and a recalculation of values. It can include a full review of the class of property being adjusted or the entire town.

Notices of new values and informal reviews with interested property owners can also be incorporated into the update at the municipality's request.  Since these programs generally do not include the measure and listing phase of a revaluation, they tend to be considerably less expensive and done more often.

Avitar offers a full range of update programs.