The Richmond Property Tax Notice That Isn't Landing This September

"Be prepared for a big jump in two years from now," Councilor Sarah Abubaker told a room of worried Richmond homeowners last September, as reassessment notices were landing in mailboxes across the city with an average 5.8 percent increase attached. This September, nothing is landing at all. Richmond has paused its annual reassessment cycle, and for property owners who've come to expect a September envelope from the Assessor's Office, that silence can feel like relief. It isn't. It's a deferral, and the mechanics behind it matter to anyone buying, selling, or budgeting in the city right now.

What last September's notice actually said

The Sept. 2025 reassessment was Richmond's last for a while, and it landed hard in some pockets of the city. Citywide, residential values rose about 5.8 percent on average, with some neighborhoods seeing increases closer to 20 percent, according to VPM's coverage of the council's tax rate debate. Axios Richmond pulled a sample of individual properties to show what that compounding looks like over a longer stretch. A Fan duplex assessed at $447,000 in 2019 came in at $695,000 for 2026, up 55 percent. A traditional two-story in Northside went from $475,000 to $838,000, up 76 percent. A Church Hill row house rose 49 percent. A Forest Hill rancher assessed at $174,000 in 2019 is now estimated at $387,000, a 122.4 percent climb.

Those four properties tell you something the citywide average can't: the 5.8 percent figure is a blend of very different local stories, and the gap between them is now locked in place for longer than usual.

The citywide average residential assessment for 2026 landed at $426,000, the figure the city itself used when council debated whether to lower the tax rate last fall.

Why nothing is landing this year

Richmond's budget is built in the spring. Its reassessment notices have historically gone out in September. Those two calendars have never lined up, which means council has spent years voting on a budget before it actually knows what the new assessments will do to revenue. The city decided to fix that by skipping a year: instead of a 2027 reassessment notice this September, property values stay frozen at their 2026 level, and the next notice won't go out until early 2027, syncing the assessment calendar to the fiscal year for the first time.

City Assessor Richie McKeithen was candid about the uncertainty that creates when he addressed council directly, as reported by The Richmonder:

"I don't want anyone to get ahead of themselves that we actually know what's going on by 2028. For all we know things could just... be the same."

The city's own FY27 budget document confirms the calendar shift is still underway, describing "the adjustment to the real estate assessment calendar currently underway" as a tool for more predictable revenue forecasting. Council kept the tax rate at $1.20 per $100 of assessed value for the 2026 tax year in an October 2025 vote, a rate that has held since 2008. What happens to that rate once the freeze ends is genuinely open. Mayor Danny Avula has said he'd consider lowering it once the city is "on the other side" of the freeze, but nothing has been decided.

Henrico County runs on a different clock entirely. It conducts general reassessments every two years, with sales ratio adjustments in the years between. If you're comparing a Richmond city listing to one in Henrico, don't assume the tax mechanics behind the sticker are the same. They aren't, and this year that difference is wider than usual.

The number this freeze fixes at your closing table

Here's where the freeze stops being a budget story and becomes a transaction detail. Virginia calculates the deed transfer taxes at closing, both the seller's grantor's tax and the buyer's recordation tax, on whichever is greater: the sale price or the property's assessed value. In a normal September, a new reassessment notice could arrive mid-contract and change that math. This year, it can't. The assessed value on file for any Richmond city property is fixed through the freeze, which means anyone closing between now and early 2027 is working with a known, stable number rather than a moving target.

For a home that's appreciated quickly since its last purchase, that assessed value is often still below the current sale price, so the sale price governs the tax base and the freeze doesn't change your bill either way. But for anyone whose assessed value happens to run ahead of a negotiated sale price, the frozen number is the one the settlement agent will use, and it's worth knowing that going in rather than discovering it on the closing statement.

If you're buying in Richmond this fall

You won't get a reassessment notice to appeal against, because none is coming. If you close on a home whose 2026 assessed value looks out of step with what you paid, the routine path, an informal review followed by a Board of Equalization filing, isn't open this cycle since no new notice triggers that clock. The remaining option is a direct appeal to Richmond Circuit Court, which state law allows within three years of the assessment year, but that's a heavier lift than the mail-in review most owners are used to. Worth confirming with the Assessor's Office before you assume you have no recourse.

If you're listing your home this fall

You have something concrete to tell buyers who are nervous about next year's tax bill: it isn't going anywhere until the freeze lifts. That's not a competitive edge over other Richmond listings, since every property in the city is under the same freeze, but it is a real answer to a real question buyers are asking, especially after a year of headlines about assessment jumps. A buyer weighing a Richmond city home against one in a county with an active reassessment cycle this year can compare carrying costs with more confidence on the Richmond side, at least through the freeze window.

The 2027 catch-up you should already be planning around

The freeze buys the city cleaner budget math for one cycle. It doesn't erase the appreciation happening underneath it. Richmond's housing market hasn't slowed enough to change the trajectory that produced last September's numbers, and when notices resume, they'll reflect two years of change instead of one. Local columnist Jon Baliles, writing for The Richmonder, estimated that some neighborhoods could see 12 percent, 24 percent, or higher jumps when the cycle catches up, with the average home potentially adding $800 to $1,200 to its annual bill on top of tax bills that have already more than doubled over the past decade. That's one analyst's read on the math, not an official city projection, but the math itself, two years of Richmond appreciation compressed into a single notice, is not in dispute.

If you're planning to own in Richmond through 2027, the freeze is the year to get ahead of that number rather than be surprised by it. If you're buying now with a multi-year hold in mind, build the eventual reset into your budget the same way you'd budget for an adjustable-rate reset, because that's functionally what this is.

A few quick questions

Does the freeze apply outside the city limits? No. Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover run their own reassessment schedules independent of Richmond's budget calendar, and none of them have announced a comparable pause.

Will my 2026 tax bill still go up? Only if the rate changes, since the assessed value driving the calculation is frozen. The rate itself is a separate council decision.

Can I still appeal an assessment I think is wrong? The routine mail-notice appeal window isn't open this cycle. A direct appeal to Richmond Circuit Court remains available within three years of the assessment year, worth a call to the Assessor's Office to confirm your specific situation.

Frozen numbers are still numbers, and the ones sitting in Richmond's land book right now say something real about where your street stands, whether you're pricing a listing or sizing up an offer. If you want a clear read on what your specific property is worth against these frozen assessments and the current market, not just the citywide average, Terri Brennan Homes offers a free home valuation built on actual comps and listing history in your part of the city. Reach out before you write an offer or sign a listing agreement, and get the number that actually applies to your address.