Purpose & Facts

Town of Essex and City of Essex Junction

Municipal-wide Reappraisal of Real Property 2023-2026

 

The Town of Essex (“Town”) and City of Essex Junction (“City”) have begun the initial steps in starting a municipal-wide reappraisal of all real property. 

Every year, the State of Vermont Department of Taxes conducts an Equalization Study with every municipality. The Equalization Study’s purpose is to assess how close the grand list assessed values compare to 100% of Fair Market Value – which  is derived from the past three years property sales history. The Equalization Study relies upon two qualifying factors, CLA and COD:

The Common Level of Appraisal (CLA) is a statistic that measures the general status of the valuations of property in a grand list. It is a measure of how close a municipality’s local assessments are to 100% of Fair Market Value. The CLA is used to equalize education taxes statewide with the goal of having properties of equal value to pay equal amounts of school taxes.  A town’s/city’s CLA has no effect on the amount of property taxes owed on the town/city portion of a property tax bill. In Vermont law, it is “the ratio-of the aggregate value of local education property tax Grand List to the aggregate value of the equalized education property tax Grand List.” (32 V.S.A. § 5401(3)). In the Town of Essex, the current CLA is 54.98%, and the current CLA for the City of Essex of Junction is 55.07%. Staying as close to 100% is the target and we want to stay as close to that as possible for as long as possible. As the market inevitably shifts, it becomes more important that we maintain equity than attempt to capture current Fair Market Value – hence the Coefficient of Dispersion measure as described by the following.

Equity between the valuation of property is tracked by the State of Vermont in a % statistic called the Coefficient of Dispersion (COD). The COD tells us the equity of the valuations for all properties in the Town and City. A COD below 10% is considered good, but as the number approaches 20% it can trigger a mandatory reappraisal order from the State of Vermont.

 

For example, the COD figure could rise if properties at or below $300,000 are consistently selling for less than the grand list assessment and, conversely, properties above $600,000 are consistently selling for more than the grand list assessment. In this sequence a case can be made that properties assessed at $300,000 or less may be overvalued while properties assessed at $600,000 or more may be undervalued. This is just an example as the valuation threshold could encompass any home value. It should also not be assumed that all properties within these sections are subject to inequity issues with valuations. Again, this statistic is used to measure the disparity in equity of the Grand List based on recent valid sales data. 

 

FACTS:

 

CLA: 54.98% Town

COD: 11.33% Town

CLA: 55.07% City

COD: 9.23% City

 

Last Municipal-wide reappraisal: 2007

 

Following is the Town of Essex and City of Essex Junction Educational Equalized Grand List  History since the last reappraisal:

 

 

 

Years (2007-2021)

Educational Equalized Grand List ($) Value

 

CLA

(%)

 

COD

(%)

2007 Essex Junction

978,833,740

102.28

7.95

2007 Essex Town

1,227,076,106

102.32

7.95

2008 Essex Junction

1,022,601,271

98.78

5.52

2008 Essex Town

1,290,981,196

98.31

5.52

2009 Essex Junction

1,034,967,968

98.58

5.76

2009 Essex Town

1,312,250,122

98.23

5.76

2010 Essex Junction

1,029,128,924

99.76

6.16

2010 Essex Town

1,302,735,099

99.79

6.16

2011 Essex Junction

1,025,211,422

100.99

5.90

2011 Essex Town

1,295,886,563

101.10

5.90

2012 Essex Junction

1,036,117,021

100.96

5.53

2012 Essex Town

1,323,254,650

101.23

5.53

2013 Essex Junction

1,046,108,137

100.82

5.78

2013 Essex Town

1,335,088,339

100.96

5.78

2014 Essex Junction

1,063,594,457

100.27

5.59

2014 Essex Town 

1,369,864,897

100.52

5.59

2015 Essex Junction

1,096,584,309

99.07

5.75

2015 Essex Town

1,424,224,576

98.98

5.75

2016 Essex Junction

1,113,829,469

97.50

5.49

2016 Essex Town

1,479,517,710

97.45

5.49

2017 Essex Junction

1,149,396,867

95.48

5.70

2017 Essex Town

1,559,066,171

95.53

5.70

2018 Essex Town*

2,790,818,980

94.15

6.17

2019 Essex Town

2,884,695,736

 91.86

6.99

2020 Essex Town

3,011,675,365

89.05

7.77

2021 Essex Town

3,180,409,890

85.08

8.88

2022 Essex Town

3,478,584,505

78.35

11.83

2023 Essex Town

2,319,897,815

   69.22**

15.07

2023 City of EJ

1,672,250,109

   67.83**

12.60

2024 Essex Town 

2,946,625,801

54.98

11.03

2024 City of EJ

2,082,177,293

55.07

9.23

*Combined CLA & CODs (no longer separated)

**Town of Essex & City of Essex Junction Separated