Real estate assessments are up 6.6%
Residential real estate assessments rose an average of 6.65% from 2024 to 2025, Fairfax County reports.
The average assessment for all homes countywide is $794,235.
In Mason District, average assessments are up 5.63%. That’s the lowest among the county’s nine supervisory districts.
Look up your home’s assessment here. After adding your home’s address, select “values” on the next page. Select “neighborhood sales” to see how your home’s value compares to sales of nearby properties.
The tax levy shown on the assessment notice mailed to homeowners is just an estimate; it’s not a tax bill. That’s because the Board of Supervisors hasn’t adopted a tax rate for 2025, but will do so as part of the budget process. County Executive Bryan Hill is recommending a 1.5-cent increase in the tax rate.
In general, home prices increased due to demand exceeding supply, the county reports. Throughout 2024, mortgage rates remained relatively high at just under 7%. There was a big increase in the number of homes for sale, but just a marginal increase in the number of homes sold.
Of the total number of residential properties, 91.51% increased in value due to equalization (market-driven increases or decreases). Only 2.48% saw a decrease in value, and assessments are unchanged for the remaining 6.01%.
Assessments of single-family detached homes increased 6.38% for an average value of $965,437. The average value of townhouses is $588,391, up 6.53%. The average for condos is $374,961, up 5.84%.
The average assessment for commercial properties is up just 0.91% compared to last year.
Office values are down significantly from 2024, due to high vacancy rates and challenges meeting debt obligations.
Other nonresidential properties – retail, multifamily, and industrial – experienced modest increases in value.
Several factors affect real estate assessments:
- Sales in the neighborhood.
- Economic factors, such as average number of days homes have been for sale and sales volume.
- Improvements to the property.
- New construction and rezoning.
- Property characteristics, such as size, age, condition, and amenities.
The estimated tax doesn’t reflect a homeowner’s 2025 tax relief benefit. Tax relief is available for eligible seniors and people with disabilities. Last year, the Board of Supervisors expanded the tax relief benefit to surviving spouses of military members who died in the line of duty.
For 2025, the maximum gross income to qualify for tax relief is $90,000, with a maximum net worth of $400,000. Tax relief applications must be filed by May 1.
Taxpayers can appeal their assessment if their property is assessed at a higher rate than its fair market value based on comparable properties or if the assessment is based on an inaccurate description of the property. The county suggests scheduling an appointment with tax administration staff before filing an appeal.
Appeals can also be filed with the Board of Equalization. The BOE conducts formal hearings and considers sworn testimony.
6 responses to “Real estate assessments are up 6.6%”
Leave a Reply to Pam B Cancel reply
yay welcome back! hope you had a good break, thanks for all you do!
Mason has the lowest uptick in home values because it has become a depository for the impoverished, homelessness, criminals, the undocumented, littered roadways, many neglected boarding houses and poor performing schools. This has been contributing to the departure of the middle class, businesses and the increase in a deteriorating housing stock.
Very sad, I use to love Mason for it has many attributes that many of us value that live here. However, watching it go downhill has been very painful. As much as I despise Musk, maybe Mason and Fairfax needs its own and better version to clean this mess up for nothing has seemed to improve Mason’s state of affairs.
Back in 2021, I think, Fairfax voters approved personal and real estate property tax relief for 100% disabled veterans. Sounds like an honorable thing to do until you learn that almost all of them live normal lives and earn considerable salaries. Couple that with this area having the highest concentration of disabled vets and we’re directly giving them $10,000+ in subsidies on top of their ~$40,000 untaxed disability payments and free state schools for their kids. This isn’t an anti-veteran rant, they earned their disability payments and take advantage of the cumulative rating system (look it up) but we don’t need to be further subsidizing them on a state and local level. To my knowledge nobody ever went back and calculated how much tax revenue was lost from this exemption
Excellent post. I believe Virginia voters, state-wide, ratified real estate tax exemptions for disabled vets and their surviving spouses as amendments to the Constitution of Virginia. It appears that applications for these benefits are made at the county level through their Commissioner of the Revenue offices. One of these approved amendments applies specifically to 100% service-connected, permanent and total disabled veterans. I’m not sure how veterans with “100% permanent and total disability” still live “normal” lives and earn considerable salaries, but if it does, something is not right here.
I would think a FOIA request to Fairfax County would reveal the extent of this benefit usage and its impact on the budget.
Arlington County provides a property tax relief/deferral program for qualified fixed-income homeowners who are age 65 or older, or disabled. I would think FfxCo could craft a similar program; it might enable house-rich but cash poor seniors to hold on to their homes, and the County could recover deferred taxes upon home sale or disposition.
Thanks for the clarifying detail. Yes the tax relief is for 100% P&T disability. The rating system is cumulative so if you have tinnitus, ptsd, and a stiff wrist you may just get to 100%. But you’re not “disabled” in the permanent and total way that a vet who lost a leg and an eye is. The verbiage the VA uses is confusing and frankly wrong. JLARC has a study on the free state school program VMSDEP and found the median family income for participants (90-100% disabled vet households) to be $98k while non participant (normal students) was $77k. The disabled vets are earning MORE (in addition to their untaxed benefit income!) than the median family! IMO the VA needs to revamp their rating system but anything seen as anti-vet is political suicide
Disabled vets may have significant expenses related to their disabilities: multiple modifications to houses, cars, expensive durable medical equipment like special wheelchairs, computers that work with eye movements, extra medical care, expensive medications.