BY KATIE THISDELL

Property values in Stafford County are starting to stabilize after a volatile decade, says Commissioner of Revenue Scott Mayausky.

The county's total tax base has increased slightly over the past two years, up to $13.5 billion, based on the 2012 general reassessment.

"This is the first stable year we've had since 2002," Mayausky said. Values rose during the housing boom early in the decade and then dropped significantly after the recession hit.

Over the past two years, residential values have increased by 2 percent, bringing the median home value in the county to $248,000.

Overall, the taxable value of real estate in Stafford increased an estimated 4 percent since the last assessment, in 2010. That figure is after adjusting the 2012 estimated tax base for land-use taxation of farmland and for new construction.

In neighboring Spotsylvania County, residential real estate values fell by 2.2 percent, while the value of all taxable real estate dropped about 3.75 percent.

Spotsylvania's latest countywide reassessment showed commercial property dropping 9 percent since 2010.

In Stafford, commercial property values also have dropped, but just by 3 percent over two years.

Now the composition of the county's tax base has evened out at 20 percent commercial and 80 percent residential. Commercial property values make up a greater percentage than ever in Stafford.

"I think an important thing to take away is, we actually came out of the boom and bust in better shape than we went in it," Mayausky told the Board of Supervisors recently. "We are growing, and that's a good thing."

Reassessments are used to redistribute the tax burden. Supervisors will set the tax rate this spring to provide the revenue the county needs for its annual budget.

The county's current real estate tax rate, set in 2011, is $1.08 per $100 of assessed value, a drop from 2010, when supervisors set the rate at $1.10 following that reassessment.

Virginia requires each locality to calculate and advertise an effective tax rate that would bring in the same amount of revenue as the previous year. Mayausky said that would bring the rate up 1 cent, to $1.09, in the next fiscal year, which begins in July.