A Letter from the Auditor:

January 29, 2008, Ironton, OH - Ohio law mandates that County Auditor’s do a full blown appraisal every six years (the Sexennial Appraisal), with a statistical update (called the Triennial Update) to be done on the 3rd year between appraisals. Calendar year 2008 (which is tax year 2007) is the 3rd year between appraisal cycles for Lawrence County, and the tax bills this year reflect the new values set by the statistical update. These new values and their corresponding tax amounts are now showing on our website (www.lawrencecountyauditor.org).

Our 2005-2007 sales study of arms-length sales throughout the County shows us that properties in our County are selling—albeit with possibly a longer time-on-market than during 2000-2004—and that the selling prices are certainly not plummeting as the national media would have us believe. The county charges a conveyance fee of $4.00 for every $1000.00 of sale price. This fee has steadily increased since 2004, when the fee generated a little over $404,000; to 2007 when the fee generated a little over $440,000. This equates to $101,000,000 in real estate sales in 2004, increasing to $110,000,000 in real estate sales in 2007. The real estate market just hasn’t cooled off in Lawrence County like it has in many other places.

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