There’s good news in Maryland for 751,677 residential and commercial properties whose assessments have increased.

Among them are about 15,000 Wicomico County properties in the west and northwest section of the county, said Corbett Webb of the state’s Department of Assessments and Taxation, based in Baltimore.

Statewide, growth has been strong and there has been a constant trend in growth, Webb said.

Webb said residential and commercial properties in Maryland were assessed for 2018 and identified as Group 3. The properties are reassessed every three years and account for one-third of the more than two million real property accounts in the state.

The 2018 reassessment showed Group 3 property values increased an average of 7.7 percent since they were last assessed for the 2015 tax year.

This represents an average increase of 5.8 percent for all residential property and 12.7 percent for all commercial property

Assessments were based on an evaluation of 63,322 sales that occurred within the group during the last three years.

If the reassessment resulted in a property value being adjusted, any increase in value will be “phased in equally during the next three years, while any decrease in value will be fully implemented in the 2018 tax year,” Webb explained.

For the 2018 reassessment, 68.9 percent of Group 3 residential properties had an increase.

Residential property owners who meet qualifications can also receive a Homestead Tax Credit, to limit their principal residence’s taxable assessment from increasing by more than a certain percentage each year.

Although statewide legislation caps the increase at no more than 10 percent, many local governments have established property tax caps at smaller percentages, Webb said.

In prior years, counties were required to set their Homestead credit percentages by November, but legislation passed earlier this year moved that deadline four months, to March.

Property tax assessment notices were mailed to Group 3 property owners on Dec. 28.