Significant valuation increases expected for county property owners

Property owners in Colorado can expect tremendous valuation increases when they receive their 2023 Notice of Valuation on or about May 1, including Phillips County. If you have not been following the local real estate market, it might be a shocking number. Over the past two years, a strong demand for real estate, increased building material costs, historically low mortgage rates, a steady migration from larger cities into Eastern Colorado and families upgrading to larger homes, have all contributed to these historic valuation increases. We have experienced double digit increases, consistent with other regions throughout Colorado. It is important to recognize that each county has unique real estate trends and research of local sales is critical to fully understand those sub-markets.

“We understand what a significant change some of our homeowners may face in value. While we work hard to do a thorough assessment, we want property owners to take a close look at what they receive and double-check their property information and review comparable property sales via our website,” said Doug Kamery, Phillips County Assessor.

Under Colorado law, county assessor offices throughout the state conduct a complete revaluation of all properties in their county every two years. The previous valuations were based on a June 30, 2020, level of value. The new 2023 valuations are based on a June 30, 2022, level of value and were established using market sales data from July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2022. Any sales transactions occurring after June 30, 2022, cannot be used, or considered until the next reappraisal in 2025. These new valuations will be used for tax years 2023 and 2024, (payable in 2024 and 2025 respectively). The Colorado Legislature sets the appraisal date, the market sales data collection period, and the annual calendar for the assessment process.

In addition to lowering assessment rates, the Colorado Legislature has also provided an actual value exemption of $15,000 per residential property and $30,000 per improved commercial property for tax year 2023. These actual valuation exemptions will not be reflected in the Notices of Valuation but will be applied prior to the 2023 tax bills being sent.

Tax calculations also take mill levies into account. Mill levies are established by the county commissioners, school districts and the boards of the various taxing entities such as fire, recreation, cemetery and hospital etc … a summation of these various individual levies is applied to the assessed value to determine the taxes due. It is undetermined at this time what the 2023 mill levies will do since the taxing entities will not set their 2023 mill levies until later this fall during their budget hearings. Residents will not know how much their property taxes due in 2024 are until the end of the year when both the tax rate and the assessment rate are set.

The assessor’s office is solely responsible for establishing valuations, not taxes. To accomplish this, the assessor uses actual market sales transactions to build a mass appraisal valuation model that is then used to set the values on all properties within the county. With the 2020 repeal of the Gallagher Amendment to the State Constitution, assessment rates are now dictated by the Colorado Legislature for all 64 Colorado Counties.

Ultimately, the assessor’s goal is to equalize property values and ensure that the tax burden is distributed fairly and equitably among property owners within the statutory and constitutional guidelines of the State of Colorado.

The protest deadline has been extended to June 8 this year.

Median estimates for regions throughout the state are shown on the map below.

• Region 1: Residential median increases of 25-40 percent.

• Region 2: Residential median increases of 20-50 percent.

• Region 3: Residential median increases of 40-60 percent.

• Region 4: Residential median increases of 30-50 percent.

• Region 5: Residential median increases of 30-60 percent.

• Region 6 (Denver Metro): Residential median increases of 35-45 percent.

The percentages listed are median increases — your individual home may have increased more or less depending on the characteristics of your property.

“Our website has more information and allows people to search and view details and characteristics of individual properties, as well as research comparable sales,” Kamery said.

Visit the website at http://www.phillipscogov.com/assessor/web.

For questions about your property value, please call (970) 854-3151 or email [email protected].