BENTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — As Northwest Arkansas rapidly grows, the area faces an issue of supply and demand. That’s why some residents in Benton County faced a hike in property values for the 2024 reappraisal that the Benton County Assessor’s office just performed.
“We have 165,650 parcels in Benton County,” said Roderick Grieve, Benton County Assessor. “The majority went up. It's an appreciating market, very active market.”
As the property values go up, so do your taxes. Residents got letters this week with a few different values on it. Grieve recommends focusing on the taxable value instead of the estimated market value.
Thanks to Arkansas Amendment 79, which is also referred to as Property Tax Relief, it can protect your property from large increases in the real estate market by putting a limit on how much your taxable assessed value can go up each year
“[For principal residence] it can only go up a maximum of 5% per year. So that's the protection property owners have from rapidly escalating property values," Grieve said.
For commercial and investment or residential property that is not someone’s permanent address, it can only go up 10%.
“Your appraised value that's on there, this was what we did as part of this countywide reappraisal. It can go anywhere. It follows the market. Even if it went up $500,000 it wouldn't make any difference on the annual tax bill," Grieve said.
Jeff Danley, an insurance agent for Farmers Insurance said he recommends paying attention to that new value for homeowner’s insurance.
“As insurance agents, we don't go off what the county says it's worth. We go off what it's cost to build," Danley said. “A tornado happens. Fire destroyed everything. You have to have enough insurance there to rebuild the home back like it was."
“If you have replacement costs, it's going to cover you to build back the house like it was at today's prices,” Danley added.
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