New Tax Assessments: You May Want to Sit Down For This…

This year, 2023, is a reappraisal year in Colorado. Colorado property owners have most likely already received their new valuations. In Summit County, those valuations are 60-70% higher than two years ago! Most Denver metro areas are seeing around 30-40% increases. And with higher valuations, mean higher taxes. While the legislature and Governor are currently taking measures to reduce property taxes either in the remaining days of this session or next fall, we can all be assured that property taxes will go up.

This is a big news story right now and people are kind of freaking out. Some will say that assessors and taxing entities KNEW this was coming (which of course they did), since real estate prices spiked over the last few years, and that better planning should have already happened to adjust for these increased taxes. Others are saying that action needs to happen right now, before the legislative session ends, to quell the inevitable tax increases. In any event, you can be assured that your assessed valuation has gone way up. Time will tell what measures are put in place to help bring down your 2023 tax bill, which gets paid in 2024.

You can file an appeal for the county’s assessed valuation of your property. To understand the benefit of doing so, we created this spreadsheet to show the amount of tax savings you would experience if you were able to reduce the assessed value by $100,000. Teaser: For most of the county, it’s around $400 per year. If you are interested in filing an appeal on your tax valuation, we can provide you with a Corelogic real estate report and/or comparables to do so. My personal opinion is that it’s going to be somewhat difficult to get a large decrease in the valuation given the comparable sales. So you need to decide if taking the time to appeal the valuation is worth the savings.

Summit Daily article: Summit County property owners are likely to see their property tax bills rise next year. Here’s what to know.

Colorado Sun article: Denver-area assessors warn of major spike in property taxes as Colorado legislature rushes to provide relief