The good, the bad and the expensive: homeowners prepare for impact of Colorado property appraisals

Opening those property appraisals is bringing home both good and bad news for homeowners. The good; Colorado's red-hot real estate market means the value of homeowner's investments has risen – a lot. The bad; the increase means a jump in your property tax bill.

In Megan Maurer's neighborhood, the homes are neat and clean. People are friendly. It's been a great place for her and her husband to buy a 90-year-old brick home and raise their three children.

"I was born and raised here in Colorado, so it means a lot to be able to live here and have a home that has history," she said.

But she knows the big bill is coming, but thinks the government does not realize what those increases of potentially hundreds of dollars per month will mean: "I don't think they realize how much inflation has gone up and how much a couple hundred bucks really impacts people."

Adams County Assessor Ken Musso has seen big increases in valuation before, but this is likely the largest and when values rise a great deal, phones start ringing and emails start arriving. There's not a lot of love.

"A lot of people really don't understand what the assessor does," Musso said.

It's the job of the local assessors, he notes, to set the values of the homes that have not recently sold with those that have been. But understands that there are difficulties in setting the values.

"We understand that it's not a perfect system and that's why we have the appeal process," he said.

To start an appeal, get in touch with your local assessor's office. That can be by a variety of ways.

"You can do that by mail. You can do it in person as a walk-in. You can email us or you can do it online as well," said Musso.

The place to start verifying the value is by looking at what the county believes you have.

"Check their property record that we have online," he said. "Check the characteristics and make sure that we it right."

That involves things like square footage, improvements, garage and outbuildings.

"Style, condition, room counts. You know your garage spaces, your view," Musso said. Look at the size of the property and confirm it is accurate. "The best-organized people are the ones that kind of do a little bit of research and have a good idea of what the houses are selling for."

That is done by checking the recent comps. There is a database of comps on the assessor's website that show recent sales. Let the assessor know if there's an unkept lot next door if or road noise is bad.

"Say you've been there for a long extended period of time say 10, 20, 30 years and you haven't done any updating to it," Musso said.

In 2019 when there was another big hike in assessments, the Adams County Assessor got over 13,000 appeals, 41% of which were changed. Amounts, of course, vary a great deal. And there is an appeals process. It goes from the county to the state, also potentially to arbitration or to district court, and then to an appeals court if you want to take it that far. But there could be court costs. Appeals to the assessor do not cost. And no, says Musso, they don't raise values on people unless they find something like the acreage was undersized.

The state also has a website that's useful: https://cdola.colorado.gov/divisions-programs/division-of-property-taxation