The results of the first reassessment of all county properties since 2002 should be reaching your mailbox this month.

Staff at the Cherokee County Tax Assessor Office spent the last several years appraising 32,798 properties, including mobile homes.

Cherokee County Council gave the thumbs-up Monday to move forward with the countywide reassessment, which was delayed twice by a vote of council members. State law requires local governments to conduct a countywide reassessment every five years, but the county was granted a pair of 1-year extensions.

Cherokee County Tax Assessor Bob Everett said he expects the reassessment notices to be mailed some time this month.

According to Cherokee County Assistant Administrator Holland Belue the total taxable value of the properties rose slightly from $88,817,670 in 2002 to about $92 million this time around.

Just what property owners will see in their reassessments is hard to say. Cherokee County Administrator Ben Clary offered this general statement, "some properties went up and some went down."

Everett was a little more specific.

"The distribution is fairly random," he said.

Everett said complicating the latest reassessment was the fact that improvements weren't fully depreciated.

Rather than eyeballing the improvements, Everett said the depreciating this time was based on the age of buildings.

For tax purposes, the county is divided into sections based on fire districts. For example, properties in the Grassy Pond Fire District would more likely be hit with a higher increase than other fire districts because of the new construction in the communities.

But no property owner will see a dramatic increase in their property reassessment since there is a 15 percent cap.

However, there is an exception if the property owner built a substantial addition to the property.

Property owners who question their reassessment will have 90 days to file an appeal from the date that appears on their notice.

"I think the value of the county overall is in much better shape based on market value of property than it was," Everett said.