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Residential Property

The Jefferson County PVA is responsible for applying a reasonable market value to over 260,000 residential properties in Jefferson County as of January 1 of each year. Our office takes great pride in ensuring that an accurate assessment of your property’s value is made. In order to accomplish this, we investigate every local sale each year to find legitimate, “arm’s-length” sales that reliably represent market trends. We also have trained Field Assessors that inspect and verify features of every property at least once every four years.

A team of PVA Field Assessors locate new and existing properties, measure the structures using American National Standard Institute standards, gather property characteristics, as well as sketch and photograph the improvements.  All Field Assessors carry signed identification badges, wear shirts with the PVA logo and have the legal right to measure the exterior dimensions of a structure in the absence of the owner.  Assisting them will eliminate the need to estimate characteristics of improvements that lead to inaccurate assessments.  If you have a question about a Field Assessor, please call the PVA at 574-6380.

The PVA must prepare value estimates for a large number of properties.  To accomplish this, automated valuation models are used by a computer assisted mass appraisal system (CAMA).  The CAMA system utilizes the cost approach, which is then adjusted for each PVA neighborhood using data from “valid arm’s-length transactions” (valid sales).  The Residential Department is staffed with well trained deputies that review over 32,000 transfers of residential properties each year to search for valid sales.  In other words, sales in Jefferson County determine the value of characteristics such as age, location, garages, and bathrooms which are then applied to similar properties nearby by the CAMA system.  To ensure a fair and equitable assessment, the CAMA system is monitored by staff to check for quality, depreciation, and location adjustments.

A performance analysis determines whether values are equitable and consistent with the market.  In mass appraisal, the primary tool for analysis is the ratio study, which is conducted annually.  The allowable range for assessment/sales ratio studies is 90 to 110% as mandated by the State of Kentucky Revenue Department.

The International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) is a professional organization with which many of our staff members are associated.  IAAO helps establish the best practices and standards for performing tax assessments, including statistical measures for evaluating the quality of assessment work.  The widely accepted measure of quality in the tax assessment field is the coefficient of dispersion (COD) and the median of assessment/sale ratios in each of the PVA neighborhoods.  The reason for wide acceptance of COD as the standard measure is that quality of assessment work is measured in terms of uniform treatment of every property to insure the highest degree of equity and fairness for individual property owners relative to one another.

If this is not the information you are looking for, please review our Frequently Asked Questions section. You may also contact Customer Service at 502-574-6380 or email CustomerService@jeffersonpva.ky.gov with your questions.

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