DENVER – Homeowners in the Denver metro area are starting to receive notices that their property values – and, as a result, their property taxes – are going up.
The last day to mail out property reassessment notices was Monday, May 1, so homeowners who haven’t received their notice yet should be getting one in the mail shortly.
Denver’s red-hot housing market means many people are seeing big increases in the value of their homes. In Denver, the average home value increase is about 30 percent and in Jefferson County, it’s about 20 percent.
Patrick Bertch recently got the property value assessment for his three-bedroom condo near Cheesman Park and he says the value increased by $100,000.
“It seemed pretty extreme. I was pretty shocked,” Bertch said.
Bertch said he expected an increase but not one that big, and he points to the three newly-remodeled condos the county compared his unit to for the purpose of the reassessment.
“To compare ours against a newly-remodeled unit, I think is unfair,” Bertch said. “We’ll definitely challenge that.”
Property owners have until June 1 to appeal the county assessor’s valuation, and Denver’s assessor says the county grants about 50 percent of all appeals. Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties also report successful appeal rates around 50 percent, while Douglas County reports only about a quarter of appeals are granted.
Homeowners who plan to appeal should make sure that any information submitted for the purpose of the appeal, such as values of comparable properties, is from the two-year window between July 2014 and June of 2016.
For more information on appealing a property value assessment, contact your local county assessor’s office.
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