Rankin County Tops $2 Billion Assessed Value

Jul. 19, 2023

Source: Rankin County News By Charles Bailey

RANKIN – It’s impossible to definitely know how many Mississippi counties can claim more than $2 billion in total assessed value, but it’s safe to say there are a handful, at most.

We can now add Rankin County to that list.

During a recent meeting of the Rankin County Board of Supervisors, county Tax Assessor John Sullivan reported that Rankin County had joined the elite $2 billion club, to the fiscal year tune of $2,056,091,047.

Take pause and consider that Rankin boasts no huge [manufacturing] plants such as Continental Tire (Hinds County) or Nissan (Madison County). We’ve reached this point together, through progressive local leadership, aggressive recruitment of new construction, and the development of well-kept, safe subdivisions. It’s truly cause for celebration.

Sullivan was elected in 2008. “In 2007, the assessed value was $1.2 billion, and Rankin County has done nothing but grow since then, to the point that now, for the first time ever, we’re over $2 billion in assessed value,” he said. “I can’t tell you for sure, but I think we’re one of five counties (in Mississippi) that can say that. We’re definitely in the Top 10 out of 82 counties.”

Sullivan explained that assessed value is a combination of a number of things: real property (which includes both commercial and residential structures), personal property (which typically involves business inventory and upgrades), vehicles, and mobile homes.

The assessments guide the county, Rankin municipalities, and two school districts – Rankin County and Pearl – in completing their fiscal year budgets.

“We do the assessments for cities and county.” Sullivan said. “We are required by law to assess 25 percent of the county year year over a four-year cycle. It would be virtually impossible to assess the entire county in one year. We have right around 80,000 parcels in Rankin County, and I have five appraisers. We are pretty much swamped just keeping up with new construction. It’s quite a task in such a growing county.”

The numbers alone illustrate the growth. In the 1986 fiscal year, the county’s assessed value stood at $294,475,812 – not even $300 million. The total steadily grew. By 2015, we had reached $1,553,436,936. At the end of fiscal year 2022, we were flirting with the $2 billion mark, at $1,999,137,061. In FY 2023, Rankin County hit the milestone: $2,056,091,047.

“We’re seeing a lot of new growth, and we’re seeing a lot of it in District Four – the Pisgah area,” Sullivan said. “In the past, it was more in the Reservoir area, but now, it’s District Four. You’re seeing properties there where people are paying $25,000-$30,000 per acre and they are buying 8-10 acres. This astonishes me. I can remember in 2008, looking at property $5,000-$10,000 per acre. Now we are seeing acreage lots around $25,000 an acre, and you buy 10 acres, that’s $250,000 for a lot. And people are building $1 million homes on that land.

“Pisgah is like Gluckstadt in Madison County,” Sullivan said. “In Madison County, everything is pushing out toward Gluckstadt, Reunion…in Rankin County, everything is pushing up Highway 25, to the Pisgah area.”