Murray will delay town-wide property re-val until at least 2024

MURRAY – The Town of Murray didn’t follow its usual schedule of a town-wide property assessment revaluation for 2022. The town, and others in Orleans County, usual do the re-val every three years.

But with a real estate, with many properties selling way above assessed values, Murray officials opted to wait on a re-val this year.

The Town Board decided it’s going to continue to wait – until at least 2024 for the next town-wide re-val.

“It is a chaotic time in the real estate market,” Town Supervisor Joe Sidonio said on Monday evening after the Town Board meeting. “We felt it might be a false market that might correct itself.”

Of the 10 towns in Orleans County, only Clarendon and Barre did re-vals in 2022. The other towns opted to wait until 2023 to see if the market prices hold.

Murray officials announced on Monday they won’t do the re-val in 2023, either. Sidonio said the high inflation and the rising interest rates should impact the market. The Town Board now will look to do the re-val in 2024.

There has been a real estate boom in Orleans County, with median sale prices up 16.7 percent in 2021 from the previous year and 25.8 percent in two years. The median sale price in Orleans County went up 68.5 percent over four years – jumping from $81,000 in 2017 to $136,500 in 2021, according to data from the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors.

“We hope it will slow down some,” Town Assessor Stephanie Holts said about the real estate market. “It’s so hard to predict with what’s going on in the world right now.”

Murray has 2,121 parcels, including in the Village of Holley. The town assessor’s office is planning to send a data mailer by the end of the year that shows each parcel owner all the information for that parcel. Owners will be asked to verify that information and note any additions.

Even though the town hasn’t done a re-val, that doesn’t mean property owners tax bills are staying the same. The state has put Murray’s equalization rate at 78 percent, meaning the assessed values of properties town-wide are at 78 percent of their market value.

With the upcoming school tax bills coming out in September, the equalization rate will be applied to the tax bills so they reflect a 100 percent market value.