Property-tax assessments: No areawide trend

Home sellers want the highest possible appraisal of their house, but when the tax man comes to the door it can be a different story.

As Boulder and Broomfield counties’ assessors come to grips with the reappraisal for 2013, most homeowners will see only slightly increased values and, for the most part, a slightly higher property tax bill unless rates have been raised. The county assessors now are incorporating data from appeals into their 2013 reappraisal which are based on data from the real property market as of June 30, 2012.

“Across the county, it’s a real mixed bag,” said Boulder County Assessor Jerry Roberts. “But basically we’re seeing slightly less than a 1 percent increase across the board for single-family homes.”

The national home market crash of 2007 had less of an effect here than in other parts of the nation, but the loss of property tax revenue stressed local governments over the course of the past several years. However, because of the nature of the reassessment, which occurs every other year and reflects the previous year’s market, some of that wasn’t felt until the past two years, which were based on the 2010 market.

“Certainly, the Louisville market (in terms of single-family homes) has been one of our strongest markets,” showing a 3.78 percent increase in valuation, Roberts said, “but there were sections of Boulder that were very strong as well.”

Boulder, as a whole, saw a 2 percent increase in valuation for single-family homes, while Erie, (-2.23 percent), Lafayette (-1.85 percent) and Longmont -0.87 (percent) all posted losses in valuation. Homes in the unincorporated plains posted a rise in valuation of 3.09 percent and the value of homes in the lower unincorporated foothills rose 6.7 percent in value.

“In Boulder there were some areas that went down and some that went up,” Roberts said. “That was true across the county. In some cases it was really a matter of specific subdivisions.”

Roberts said the upper end of the single-family home market probably was weaker, by and large, because of the difficulty in securing high-end loans in 2011 and 2012. He also noted that the volume of sales in this end of the spectrum made comparison difficult.

Meanwhile, Broomfield County Assessor John Storb said his county saw a 10 percent overall increase in valuation, largely based on higher values for commercial properties.

“We’re one of the few counties in the state that saw a really substantial increase,” he said. “FlatIron Crossing had a significant increase in value, and office values also rose.”

Storb said his data for single-family homes in preliminary, but he estimated that the median increase would be about 1 percent, while the average home price increase would be about 3 percent.

New home sales in the northern end of Broomfield County, such as the Anthem subdivision, account for the average price rising faster than the median price, Roberts said.

The numbers should be fairly encouraging for Boulder County cities, although Roberts noted that areas in the northeast near Weld County still show that aftermath of the numerous foreclosures that hit after the housing bubble burst.

For instance, although the single-family home valuations still dropped slightly in Longmont, Budget Office manager Teresa Molloy expected that overall the property tax revenues will rise for the city. That total assessed value includes all real property including office, commercial and multi-family residential property.

“Based on some very preliminary data we have gotten so far, we are seeing a slight valuation increase,” Molloy said.

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