Northside Neighborhood in NC Reduced Property Tax Values by $7 Million

Chapel Hill, NC. (Source: Town of Chapel Hill.)

Northside neighbors in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, mobilized to raise awareness of property tax inequities within their community and ultimately brought about a $7-million reduction in home assessed values.

The journey to this victory began in 2021, when during a conversation with a friend, Northside resident Hudson Vaughan found his property tax appraisal had jumped in value, whereas his friend’s rental property had not. This oddity prompted Vaughan to do some research, and he ended up discovering that Northside residents' property tax revaluations were marked with a 53% average increase. Many locals saw anywhere from a 20 to 86% increase on the appraised value of their homes; a sudden and striking amount, especially when Vaughan compared the increase to other neighborhoods in Chapel Hill that experienced reevaluation averages between -1% to 13%. The appraised value was 128% of the sale value for Northside homes. Other nearby neighborhoods such as Greenbridge, East Rosemary, and Davie Circle, had appraised values ranging from 73 to 93% of sale value. Simply put, the homes in Northside were dramatically overassessed while the adjacent neighborhoods were underassessed. 

Disparities in property tax appraisals are not unique to the Northside residents in Chapel Hill. Experts such as Dr. Christopher Berry of the University of Chicago have revealed that the entire nation is burdened with property tax inequities. In thousands of counties, the property tax burden has been shifted from owners of larger and more expensive properties to people who own smaller and less expensive homes. Consequently, for many homeowners, property taxes have skyrocketed thousands of dollars and have been a near-impossible financial adjustment.

“It wasn't just low-income neighbors in our community, though,” said Vaughan. “It was a ton of the historic Black neighbors of all different incomes who were experiencing this inequity.” 

To address the property tax inequities, Vaughan collaborated with his friends from the Marion Creek Jackson Center, who were also receiving comments from residents about the overwhelming value increase. Together, Vaughan and Jackson’s Community Advocacy Coordinator Kathy Atwater wrote a letter to the assessor's office sharing their research data and calling for immediate change. 

They wrote: “The fact alone that our 95-year-old African American neighbor in Northside, who served as the housekeeper for Chapel of the Cross for decades, could see her property tax bill rise by 85% in 2021 while members of that congregation who live in mansions blocks from UNC would see their bills rise by only 5% should make you act.” 

The letter was not the only course of action this community took in raising the alarm about the property tax assessment system. George Barrett, executive director from the Jackson Community Center, spurred forward a coalition to bring outside voices into the push for change (including NAACP and EmPOWERment, Inc.). Community members created educational content, such as an iconic “Price It Right” video; they gathered 650 signatures for a petition; they filed individual appeals; and Vaughan filed 144 appeals on behalf of property owners. 

“It was really the rising power of our neighbors that actually forced the hand to change,” Vaughan said.

In response to community action, local assessors walked the streets with Northside locals to identify causes for the mistakes in property valuations. The assessors took seriously the voices of neighbors, and began to make efforts to correct overvaluations and address the systemic issues. This resulted in not only the $7-million reduction in home assessed value for residents, but a $5- to 6-million increase in value for underassessed rental properties.

“The county has now become proactive in engaging. Now the county commissioners are inviting the School of Government to do reviews and to make sure it's equitable,” said Vaughan. “They're revising their property tax mitigation fund with neighborhood support.”

Dr. Berry once said that it wouldn’t be nationally recognized research papers that bring about change in the property tax assessment system, but that true change would be pushed forward by locals wanting to make their community better. The Northside Community in North Carolina is a testament to that. 

“The power, and the strategy, and the direction came from neighbors,” said Barret. 

Local, bottom-up revolutions are imperative to bringing about change to nationwide issues like property tax inequities. The Just Accounting for Health consortium, which Strong Towns is a part of, is diving into the property tax and health inequities within North Carolina to bring light to the system issues on a local level. To keep up with the progress and hear more about local successes, sign up for email alerts here.

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