Gaston County tax office outlines 2027 reappraisal process, timeline and expectations

Chelsea Tarbesch, Gaston County tax director, said the county is preparing for a 2027 reappraisal and will present its Schedule of Values — the tables and market metrics loaded into the appraisal system — to the board in late August.

"It's the tables, it's income, it's everything that we use to value a property," Tarbesch said, calling the schedule the office's "bible" for mass appraisal and noting staff have been comparing market data for the last three years.

Tarbesch explained Gaston County operates on a four-year reappraisal cycle (adopted before 2015) to reduce abrupt, large increases in assessed values between cycles. She told listeners the county began pre-review work after the 2023 appeals concluded and that a four-year mass appraisal requires roughly three years of preparation given current staffing and parcel volume.

Tarbesch said the county tracks assessed-to-market ratios quarterly for the state Department of Revenue and that, as of mid‑2026, the county’s assessed-to-market ratio from the 2023 reappraisal sat near 85%–86%, a level she said makes a repeat of 2023’s large countywide increase less likely.

The county will apply the Schedule of Values uniformly across residential, commercial and industrial property using the sales comparison, income and cost approaches; Tarbesch stressed mass appraisal methods differ from one-off fee appraisals.

Residents can review the reappraisal schedule and related materials on the county reappraisal page and at public meetings the tax office schedules across the county.