The primary responsibility of the Assessors Office is to find the fair market value of your property, not to establish the amount of your taxes. Buyers and sellers in the market create value, and the Assessors Office studies the market and collects information about properties to estimate value. Revaluation does not necessarily determine whether or not your taxes will increase. It is only one element of a process that results in the final amount you are taxed.

The Assessors Office also keeps track of ownership changes, maintains maps of parcel boundaries, keeps description of buildings and property characteristics up to date, and, most important, analyzes trends in sales prices, construction costs, and rents to estimate the value of all assessable property.