In the past 10 years the valuation of McIntosh County, as whole, has increased $511,000,000, according to County Assessor Trina Williams. Most of this increase has happened within the last 3 years and she believes that is largely due to the pandemic and the medical marijuana industry.

“We have people from California, Texas, even Michigan and Minnesota, paying outlandish prices for properties and land here and people who are now able to work from home are buying lake properties and leaving the big cities to move to our area. It has definitely been a seller’s market! We had properties valued at $80,000 selling for $300,000. Since the increase in interest rates, we have noticed a decrease in the number of sales and the sales amounts but not even close to what they were three years ago.”

The county is growing by leaps and bounds – more property sales, more population, more sales tax income. But, with increased value of properties, comes an increase in property taxes. Not too many people are fans of paying property taxes, including the assessor, who is fighting to keep those taxes as low as possible.

Most recently, she was criticized by the state auditor’s and OTC for not increasing property values more than they felt she should.

She defended her position. “This is our county, my assessment rolls. I made the decision that I’m not going to go in and raise all of my unsold properties up to the exorbitant prices of the sold properties. Most of the sold properties are not even valued at what they sold for because I feel those high sales do not reflect the ‘true market value’ for our county.”

“The Oklahoma Tax Commission, per statute, says I shall go into all of my unsold properties and look at the sales around them and raise each property to match those sales.” She says she knows that her land values are somewhat low and need to be adjusted but not so much as to match the high sales of the past three years. “I am not going to raise the fair cash value of all land that much only to have to lower them all back down when the market settles. Fortunately, all unsold property values are protected by the 3% & 5% cap so they are not paying taxes on the full fair cash values anyway so increasing the fair cash value would not raise more tax dollars for our schools, county, health dept. and libraries.”

Williams has been in office about 16 years.

“Last year the county valuation went up about $18 million.”, she said. Last year alone the county’s valuation increased by $148,616,746. A large percentage of that being the sales of new lots in Patriot Pointe Subdivision northeast of Eufaula in the Sandy Bass Bay Area. Patriot Pointe started in 2021 and out of 257 lots only 7 remain unsold. The lots sold anywhere from $75,000 to $400,000 and range in size from 1 acre to 8 acres each.

“It’s the largest increase we’ve had in one year because it all sold so quickly.” Williams said. Now the owners will be constructing homes 1,400 square feet or larger. “They already have paved roads, electricity and internet. It’s going to be a spectacular place,” Williams said.

Many buyers are from Texas, especially the Frisco and Dallas areas, others come from California and a few locals are sprinkled in as well. Property values and taxes are so expensive in California and Texas that they think nothing of the Oklahoma prices.

“The Patriot Pointe developers are marketing geniuses! We have never had a whole subdivision sell in a year. We have had a lot of new subdivisions over the past 16 years but it usually takes years and years for all of the lots to sell. This will be a nice chunk of change for the Eufaula School District.”

Williams said the school districts get 81% of all property taxes and 11% goes to the county which helps pay employee salaries, 5% goes to the county health dept and 3% goes to the district library system. None of our property taxes go towards roads or bridges.

According to the Oklahoma Tax Commission property taxes in Oklahoma are among the lowest in both its region and relatively low across all 50 states in the U.S. The median annual property tax payment in Oklahoma is $1,424, which is the 10th lowest amount of any state. Furthermore, that comes in as just over half the $2,795 national median.

One reason for the low taxes is the state laws do not allow taxable assessed home values to increase by more than 3% for homesteaded and/or Ag land and 5% on all others. The amount of property taxes homeowners in Oklahoma pay depends on the taxable value of their property, the tax rate (11% in our county) and the school levy amount of the property situs.

County Assessors determine the market value of property in their jurisdictions through visual inspection and sales analysis. Statutory visual inspection is being done every day on ¼ of the county per year looking for new homes, additions, and other outbuildings. They also look for structures no longer standing, and depreciation on dilapidated structures. Information from those field cards is then entered into a state wide valuation system using cost codes and price per square foot provided by the Oklahoma Tax Commission. They are required to do sales analysis every year on the previous year’s sales to help determine the value of your property in your area. “We all want our property values to go up. It’s an investment. So, the fair cash value will go up, but we want to hold the line on taxable value” The State of Oklahoma has several exemptions to help provide tax relief to our property owners.

The regular Homestead Exemption is for any and every homeowner who uses their property as their main place of residence. They must have a valid Oklahoma driver’s license and not have the Homestead Exemption on any other property in the state. This will save anywhere from $80 $120 per year on the tax amount.

The Double Homestead Exemption is for property owners who have an income of less than $30,000 total, household, gross and have the regular Homestead Exemption. This will save an additional $80 – $120 per year. Proof of Income is required and veteran’s disability income does not count.

The Senior Freeze is for owners 65 years or older and have a combined, total, gross income of the HUD Median Income for your county. Here in McIntosh County that will be $58,200 for the 2023 year. The Freeze will protect you from the statutory 3-5% yearly increase to reach your fair cash value.

If you are a 100% service-connected Disabled Veteran then you can apply for an exemption that will completely exempt your homestead property from taxes. An embossed letter from the VA showing 100% disability is required.