The Mathews County Board of Supervisors, meeting last Thursday, received an update on this year’s reassessment from Jason Cowan, chief assessor for Cowan Services LLC. Cowan reported that, since the last reassessment, property values in the county have increased by 20-30 percent across the board, outpacing both the rest of the state and the nation. “They’re the highest they’ve ever been, based on Federal Housing Finance Agency public data,” he said. Realtor prices have increased overall by 26 percent since the last reassessment, said Cowan, and the market is still “relatively strong,” with 709 sales over the past few years and around 450 active listings now. Smaller houses that once sold for $120,000-$130,000 are now going for $200,000, he said, “because more people are chasing them.” The reassessment team has visited around 5,500 properties thus far, or just under half of the total of 12,000 or so properties in the county, he said. They’re noting such things as each house’s condition,...