City Manager Sam Sanders often says that Charlottesville is a locality that punches above its own weight. 2025 was certainly a year where the City Council was willing to keep doing more than what most localities do to provide housing and appeared to demand more.
The five elected officials are able to do so in part because property values in Charlottesville have continued to increase, growing the overall tax base. Unlike surrounding counties, residents appear to be willing to accept higher taxes.
For perspective, let’s go back to 2019. For that year, the total value of taxable land and buildings in Charlottesville was close to $7.65 billion and yielded $72,654,984 in property tax revenue based on a tax rate of $0.95 per $100 of assessed value…