Last year the Holiday Inn in downtown Concord was purchased for $18,800,000 although its assessed value was only $6,360,900. Look at your assessment on the tax bill you just got and see if you think your property would sell for three times that value.
If somebody from out of town buys a house in your area for more than it’s worth, the assessment of nearby houses increases, but sales to knowledgeable commercial investors don’t seem to increase adjoining assessments. When the motel at exit 12 on South Main Street was bought as a tear-down, the land value of that and similar properties should have been set based on the total price paid. It still has the original land value and no adjustments were made to the value of adjoining land. Another example is the Bindery property on South Main Street.
The 79-E calculation for the First Congregational Church in Aug. 2023 showed a projected developer investment of $5,823,500 but a projected assessed value of only $2,912,200. Even stranger, the 2021 assessment of the buildings at the Steeplegate Mall was negative $1 million although several were rented on long-term leases. While a citywide reassessment is under way, we need to make sure commercial property is appraised fairly, not given the present sweetheart deals. This way, homeowners would pay lower taxes.
Roy Schweiker
Concord