AUBURN – New home value assessments should start hitting mailboxes this spring, according to Auburn Tax Assessor Cheryl Dubois.

City assessors are down to the last 500 homes in the two-year-long revaluation. Dubois said she hopes to finish home inspections by the end of January. Assessing staff will take a few weeks to double-check their files before mailing notifications to Auburn homeowners.

Tax bills based on the new valuation should be mailed out beginning this summer.

“Before that, we set aside a large period of time for hearings,” Dubois said. “People will have plenty of time to meet with us discuss their new property values.”

The revaluation began in late in 2002, with city assessors inspecting homes and businesses. Dubois said most of the work on the commercial property values is done, although they are still working to set land values.

“Everything should wrap up about the same time,” she said. “We have finished all of the commercial inspections and now we’re working with the details. The residential inspections are more straightforward.”

The last full valuation occurred in the late 1980s, in time for the 1990 tax bill. The city multiplies a property’s assessed value in 1990 by the mill rate – currently $29.38 per thousand dollars of value – to determine a property owner’s tax bill. That amounts to about $2,497 in property taxes on an $85,000 home.

The current assessed value for Auburn’s entire property base is $1.26 billion.

Dubois said assessors have been granted exceptional access to most properties.

“We sent out one letter and then left door hangers behind when we couldn’t reach people,” Dubois said. “We sent out a second letter if we still didn’t get in touch. So, with all the different reminders, we’ve managed to talk to about 80 percent of the property owners.”