Home Values in Lynchburg
Dr. Perry forwarded us an interesting article from the News & Advance today, “Hundreds in Lynchburg appeal jump in home values.” One of the things I like about the online edition of the paper is that readers are able to leave comments, which I often find more enlightening than the articles themselves. Some people make very good intelligent points, while others tend to spew emotion and pick on others’ comments, but it’s nonetheless an interesting forum.
One reader wrote that “a $10,000 increase in your assessment means you pay $8.75 more per month in taxes on our $1.05 rate” and that she would be willing to fork over the extra cash, because she would like to see improvements in city infrastructure. So I wondered what area of Lynchburg she lives in, where she drives to get to work, what fraction of an hour she might work to earn $8.75, how many kids she has, etc. Furthermore, if her $8.75/month were not spent on improvements in her own neighborhood, would she be so willing to pay?
Essentially, this article explains that the largest percent increases in assessed home values were for smaller and older homes; naturally in more low-income areas in the city than not. However, I wonder if those areas where people are paying around 7% more property taxes are seeing the city spend maybe 7% more on infrastructure improvements in their neighborhood. Probably not.
My guess is that the most property tax dollars are not necessarily spent on the people who pay the most taxes, especially in a city like Lynchburg where there are huge variations in neighborhood income (take the historic district in Garland Hill and Tinbridge Hill, for one example). I don’t know how the city budget works here in Lynchburg, but I’d be curious to know how equitably infrastructure improvements, and other spending projects, are distributed across the city.
