By Mike Fitts
mfitts@scbiznews.com
Published May 21, 2009

A change to point-of-sale reassessment of real estate has apparently stalled for the year in the Legislature.

S.C. Realtors Association CEO Nick Kremydas said the bill, which has passed the House, got caught up in the Senate’s fights over unrelated matters and opposition, especially from Senate Democrats.

Kremydas said leadership in both parties has committed to debate the bill early next year, but he fears that South Carolina’s commercial real estate market will take a pounding in the coming months. “This legislation could have helped buffer that fall,” he said.

The bill would put off reassessments until the county’s regular five-year cycle. Real estate experts have complained that the immediate reassessments to sale price have brought a huge jolt, because the actual price has often been far higher than the most recent assessment on the books. Top executives in the real estate industry have complained that the changes created huge inequities and disincentives to buy.

Kremydas called the delay “very disappointing” for Realtors, who rallied at the Statehouse earlier this week to show support for the measure.

Advocates for local governments have opposed the bill. The Municipal Association of South Carolina argues that the measure hurts local tax revenues by artificially capping at 15% the amount that a home’s assessed value can increase, no matter the new sale price, and by shifting more of the cost of government onto owners of property that appreciates more slowly.

The 15% cap was put in place to protect current homeowners, not buyers, the association said in a statement.

Kremydas and municipal association deputy executive director Reba Campbell both said, however, that the layoff could provide time for differing sides on the issue to work out a compromise that would satisfy local government and real estate business concerns.