There's some fairly good economic news for Wake County residents. It appears the revaluation of homes in the county isn't hurting the ability to sell homes for their market value.

Although housing sales are disastrous in many part of the country, experts say Wake County homes sales remain fairly strong.

Home sales are down significantly in this area compared to years past, but the homes, which are selling, are doing so at or close to their assessed value.

Folks worried about the value of their homes here in Wake County are finding they can still sell their homes for what they are valued at.

“We're holding our own very well,” said Marcus Kinraid who is the Wake County revenue director.  “If you compare us to any other jurisdiction in the state, I would say we're probably tops.”

Kinraid says the county came to that conclusion by studying current home sale data. And although home sales are down significantly, the ones which are selling are getting prices pretty close to their tax value.

“The assessed values we put in place on January 1, 2008 are still in line with the market today,” said Kinraid.

Tim Burrell’s a broker whose been selling homes in Wake County for years. He agrees, the revaluation has helped keep housing sales prices high.

“The tax values used to be substantially out of whack and people coming from other areas were always looking at tax values and saying I won't offer that, it's only worth  'x' amount according to the tax assessment,” said Burrell.

In Tim's experience, there are relatively few homes where the  sale price and the tax value don't mesh. One rare example is on home on Dewberry Court in Cary, which is adjacent to U.S. 1.

It's selling for $100,000 less than its $362,000 tax value. However, Tim said that they're using the discrepancy as a selling point.

“In this situation, we thought it would be a marketing advantage to show people we are price under the tax value,” said Burrell.

Meanwhile, The Wake County revenue director says there has been an increase in calls from folks requesting appeals of their revaluation, but he said tax laws don't allow for appeals unless the board of equalization is in session.

The next session of that board doesn't begin until January 1, 2009.