KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? Wyandotte County residents are inundating the County Appraiser’s Office with phone calls and e-mails in response to new appraisal notices with an average 21 percent increase in valuations.

County Appraiser John DeVault said Wednesday that the rising property valuations across the county were tied to the growth occurring in western Wyandotte County around the new Kansas Speedway.

But he said the increases also were caused partly by properties that were undervalued in the county in the past. He noted that state law requires county valuations to be at least 90 percent of market value.

The county’s numbers indicate that the growth rate is 9.5 percent, with values from last year behind about 12 percent or 13 percent.

DeVault said home values had increased about 10 percent each year for the past few years, and the housing boom did not appear to be slowing. In 2002, more than 290 new homes were built in the county — a 30-year high — and new construction permits totaled $142 million.

DeVault said he tried to convince people that higher valuations were a good problem to have.

“If your value on your property is increasing, it means you’re worth more today than you were yesterday,” he said. “If you want to refinance your mortgage, or improve your property, you are going to have more equity in your house and it will be easier to get loans.”

But some Wyandotte County residents are skeptical. Stasia Wolcheski, whose home’s valuation increased $12,700, said she was expecting a corresponding tax increase.

“This, I guess, is supposed to be good news to me, that my house is worth more,” she wrote in a column for the Kansas City Kansan. “It only tells me that my real estate taxes will be going up, up, up.”

Although many residents are concerned the higher valuations will mean higher taxes, DeVault said his office didn’t determine tax rates. He said local government entities and school districts would determine those rates when they set mill levies later in the year.

“I have no control over that,” DeVault said. “It’s my job to determine how much property is worth, and right now it is worth more in Wyandotte County than it used to be.”

DeVault said people who truly believed their property was not valued correctly could schedule hearings with his office.

“If we have a problem, we’ll correct it,” he said. “But if it’s someone who just doesn’t want an increase, we can explain how we reached our numbers. That might not make them happy, but it will help them understand.”

And he said county officials hoped that the increased property values might eventually lead to lower tax levies in the county.

“Wyandotte County’s biggest problem for years has been no growth,” he said. “Now we’re enjoying prosperity and it’s great. But it’s still a low-priced county to live in.”