The 2025 Reassessment and What it Means for Real Estate Taxes By: Orange County Communications Department
The first Reassessment Notices issued by the Orange County Real Estate Assessment Department were mailed mid-July 2025. Prior to the establishment of the department, reassessments had not been conducted since 2020. Virginia code requires that properties be assessed at 100% of market value. As a result, most residents noticed a significant increase in their property values on this year's reassessment (average increase: 32.72%). Orange County understands that this may lead to several questions, including what it may mean for real estate taxes. Below is some general information about assessments, with frequently asked questions on the opposite page.
2025
Curious about how taxes are determined? The amount of real estate tax paid by Orange County property owners is determined by just two variables - 1) assessed value and 2) tax rate . Additionally, land use considerations can impact the final amount due for some properties. The calculation that determines the tax due from a property can be written as follows: ( Assessed Value / 100) x Tax Rate = Real Estate Tax Due For example, the taxes for a property assessed at $250,000 , with the 2024 tax rate of 75¢ per $100 value, would be calculated as ( $250,000 /100) x 0.75 = $1,875 . Assessed Values Since Orange County is obligated by Virginia Code to assess properties as close to true market value as possible, County officials do not actually "decide" a property's value. Assessors can utilize improved practices, technologies, and techniques to do a better job and get a more realistic assessment of what a property's market value actually is, which may lead to an increase or decrease, but they cannot choose to increase or decrease values as a means of impacting taxes . Simply put, the amount that a property's assessed value goes up or down is decided by its market value. The portion of the equation which can be changed to increase or decrease taxes is the tax rate, which is set by the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Tax Rates The Orange County Board of Supervisors determines the tax rate for Orange County each year during the spring. Orange County recently realigned our tax year to match our fiscal year. As a result, rates decided by the Board will now take effect for the tax bill which will be issued in the fall and which will be due in December 2025. This year, with awareness that a more accurate assessment coupled with a consistent trend of property value increases in the market would lead to a significant increase in assessed values, the Board equalized the tax rate. In other words, the tax rate was lowered to help offset the increase in property values as required by law . Once equalized, the Board increased the Fire &EMS levy ( a portion of the tax rate which supports County fire and rescue efforts ) from 11¢ to 15¢. Including both portions (Fire & EMS Levy and General Fund) the overall tax rate decreased from 75¢ to 62¢ . A table is available on the next page which shows the old tax rates, the equalized rates, and the adopted 2025 tax rates for each fund.
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OCI August 2025
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