The Ohio Department of Taxation is recommending an average of a 34% increase in residential property values across several counties, which include Montgomery, Greene and Butler
Ohio law requires every county auditor to update property values every six years, there’s also a reappraisal in the three-year interim — not all counties are on the same cycle.
That appraisal update is partly driven by how much homes sold for in a specific neighborhood recently, although there’s other factors, like the housing stock within a certain location.
In Montgomery County, property values will increase by an average of 37%, although some homeowners might see more than 37% or less, mainly depending on the location of the property according to Karl Keith, Montgomery County’s auditor.
Keith said the steep hike is partly due to the booming housing market in recent years.
“Quite frankly, we were all surprised at how active the market continued to be throughout the pandemic time,” Keith said. “Anecdotally, people were rarely selling their homes for less than the listed price. And so that type of thing is what's driving these types of increases.”
He added although people will have their property value increase, it doesn’t translate to a high increase in property taxes.
“There are factors at work here within Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution that prevent inflationary increases in taxes based upon extreme increases in value,” Keith said. “And so this type of increase, will people see taxes go up? They will, but it'll be moderate compared to 37%.”
The auditor’s office plans to submit its property value reappraisals to the department of Taxation by late May. The state can then approve the values or require the county to make changes.
Homeowners can expect to receive a notice of their new property value by early summer once the state has approved the values. If the homeowner disagrees with the new value they can file an appeal with the county auditor and set up an informal review meeting later this year.
Alejandro Figueroa is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.
