Greenbrier County Accountability Report

1 Executive summary

In Greenbrier County, Joe Darnell’s office assesses residential property with a coefficient of dispersion (COD) of 33.4 — a measure of how evenly comparable homes are valued — against an IAAO target of 15 or below, where the county ranks 31st of 54 for uniformity. Vertical equity (PRD 1.028, PRB 0.0082) is within or near the equitable range. Of the roll, 9.6% is stale (≥20% uncaptured market movement); the county ranks 21st of 55 for reappraisal currency. Overall the office meets 2 of 3 iaao standards — reported per standard, with no single overall grade.

COD (uniformity) FAIL

COD 33.4 (IAAO ≤ 15)

Ranks 31st of 54 for uniformity

PRD (vertical equity) PASS

PRD 1.028 (IAAO 0.98–1.03)

Ranks 3rd of 54 for vertical equity

PRB (vertical equity) PASS

PRB 0.0082 (IAAO ±0.05)

Ranks 3rd of 54 for vertical equity

Reappraisal cadence PASS

9.6% stale (IAAO < 15% stale)

Ranks 21st of 55 for reappraisal currency

2 Uniformity — Coefficient of Dispersion (COD)

33.4 IAAO target ≤ 15 (improved residential)

FAIL

COD 33.4 — uneven assessment across parcels (>20).

Statewide context: the median county COD is 31.6; this county is less uniform than the typical WV county.

Among all 55 counties, Greenbrier ranks 31st of 54 for uniformity (1st = most uniform).

3 Vertical equity — PRD & PRB

1.028 Price-Related Differential · IAAO 0.98–1.03

PASS

PRD 1.028.

0.0082 Price-Related Bias · IAAO ±0.05

PASS

PRB 0.0082.

On vertical equity (|PRB|), Greenbrier ranks 3rd of 54 for vertical equity of the 55 counties (1st = most equitable).

4 Reappraisal cadence

9.6% stale IAAO/best-practice target < 15% of roll stale · avg 1.4 yrs since last value change

PASS

9.6% of the residential roll has ≥20% uncaptured market movement (avg 1.4 yrs since last value change) — roll is current.

Statewide context: the median county has 11.6% of its roll stale.

Greenbrier Ranks 21st of 55 for reappraisal currency (1st = most current roll).

5 Level of assessment (context only — not graded)

Median sales ratio — context only, never graded

0.7619 CONTEXT

Appraised at 76% of market. WV runs below 100% (reappraisal lag + market) — reported as context, not graded.

Why this is not graded: West Virginia’s mandated reappraisal cycle and the housing market — both largely outside any one assessor’s control — push the level (whether values sit at, say, 84% vs 95% of market) far more than assessment practice does. A county can be perfectly uniform and equitable while still sitting below 100% simply because the cycle hasn’t come around. So the level is reported as context.

6 Assessor tenure scorecard

Each graded assessor era, scored on its own roll against the same IAAO standards. WV assessors serve four-year terms; the seat is on the ballot in November of a term’s end year.

Joe Darnell term 2025–2028

current officeholder

On the ballot 2028 — this seat is up for election in November 2028.

Nancy Sartor (2004)

n=305

Not graded — spans only 1 sale year(s) (need >= 2).

Steve Keadle (2005–2016)

n=2,942 · Confidence: High · 2 of 3 standards met

COD FAIL 33.0 PRD PASS 1.014 PRB PASS 0.0175 Level ratio 0.7705 (context)

Joe Darnell (2017–2024)

n=2,338 · Confidence: High · 1 of 3 standards met

COD FAIL 34.2 PRD WARN 1.038 PRB PASS -0.0068 Level ratio 0.7640 (context)

Term-over-term trend

From Steve Keadle (2005–2016) to Joe Darnell (2017–2024). Lower COD = more uniform.

▼

Uniformity (COD) worsened by 1.2 COD points (33.0 → 34.2) under Joe Darnell vs. Steve Keadle.

7 Methodology & integrity

Real elected officials. Level (median ratio) is confounded by the statewide reappraisal cycle and the housing market; COD/uniformity is the more assessor-attributable signal. Not a judgment of any individual.

Grades rest on a direct, time-matched sales-ratio study: the assessor’s own appraised value in the sale year divided by the actual arms-length sale price. There is no model and no prediction. Grading gates: an era is graded only with ≥100 attributable sales across ≥2 distinct sale years; the current roll year (2025) is excluded until it settles.

Confidence tiers (by attributed sales): High ≥ 1,000 · Medium 300–999 · Low 100–299 · Insufficient < 100.

Targets: COD ≤ 15 (IAAO, improved residential); PRD 0.98–1.03 (IAAO); PRB ±0.05 (IAAO); cadence < 15% of roll stale; level context only — confounded by reappraisal cycle + market, not graded.

Data sources: county assessor records — appraised values from parcel_tax_history, arms-length (validity-code 0) residential (class R) sales from parcel_sales_history. This dataset contains no billed tax dollars.

These are assessment-practice metrics, not a judgment of any individual, computed the same way for every county. Full detail: Methodology & Data →