The 2023 Revaluation Explained
A 2023 property reappraisal led to an average 30% increase in property values across Ohio, bringing renewed public attention to how property taxes are calculated.
A 2023 property reappraisal led to an average 30% increase in property values across Ohio, bringing renewed public attention to how property taxes are calculated.
A 30% increase in property value does not necessarily mean a property owner’s taxes rise by that amount, explained Geauga County Auditor Chuck Walder.
“All of the voted levies that people vote for, all of them do not change with valuation,” he said. “The collection rate does not change. It only changes with new construction. The component that changes is inside millage.”
When property values increase, inside millage automatically rises with the valuation, Walder said.
“The value of 10 mills went up exactly 30% on average in Geauga County,” he said. “That was a big number. That was millions of dollars.”
And because it was inside millage, no one voted for it, Walder said, adding, “You just got it.”
The revaluation process in general is complicated, Walder said.
“We look at transactions that occur in the county on a monthly basis and we report those to Columbus,” he explained. “So, when a conveyance occurs, we document the sale price of a conveyed property and it has all of its asset components attached to it.”
State officials then assign a valuation to the property based on its sale price. That information is added to a statewide database, where it is compared with similar properties to determine market trends. The data helps determine whether the value of a particular component, style of home or property is trending up, down or staying the same, Walder explained.
“If it’s going up or down, they determine through an algorithm … how much is the market moving based on demand,” he said. “And their assertion is, if that particular product is similar to an existing product that is not conveyed, then that existing product’s value went up.”
Walder said his office submits estimates of local market conditions, which are then reviewed by the state.
“When I did the sexennial, I submitted one set of numbers to them and they said, ‘No, you’re too low.’ So then, it becomes a game,” he said. “You have to get close to their number, until they accept it. I can’t raise or lower without their approval. And I can’t just randomly pick a number, they have to agree that number is reasonably close.”
The result of that process was an average 30% increase in property values across the state, he said.
Walder said he has argued that homes sold on the open market are often in better condition because owners frequently make improvements before listing them.
“The average house that’s sitting there that’s not on the market typically is not being treated that way,” he said. “That is not anywhere in their factoring system. They do not consider, ‘We should really discount the homes that didn’t convey because they probably weren’t improved for sale.’”
Home evaluations are also conducted from the street, Walder said, putting the burden on the homeowners to challenge valuations through the board of revisions if they believe their property has been overvalued based on exterior appearance.
