AKRON, Ohio — For days, homeowners in Summit County have been receiving letters stating their new property values, due to a countywide average increase of 31.4% on property values. This comes from a triennial reappraisal, which Summit County, alongside a dozen other Ohio counties, have experienced in 2023.
According to the Summit County Fiscal Office, the state of Ohio mandates reappraisals on a particular cycle - a sexennial appraisal every six years, and a triennial every three years. For example, in 2023, Summit County, alongside Wayne, Ashtabula, and others, underwent triennial updates, while next year, close to 20 counties, including Cuyahoga, will undergo their sexennial reappraisals.
Dominic Basile, Director of Real Estate and Appraisal at the Summit County FIscal Office, described the sexennial reappraisal as a more “comprehensive” and “complex” appraisal process, while the triennial is more of an update, based on the appraised values set in 2020.
For this triennial reappraisal, Basile said the state proposed an increase on residential property values in Summit County of 34%. However, the county did their own study, and submitted a lower increase of 31.4% to the state, which was approved.
Basile said that sometimes the state’s number can be slightly different than the county’s number because the state can’t necessarily “validate sales to the level that we can,” explaining that in Summit County, an appraiser can take a look at each home sale, verifying information like the size of the house and any outbuildings it may have to better understand its price.
“We are here, we're local, we know this market,” he said. “We take a lot of time and effort to validate the sales that we utilize when we complete a reappraisal. The state doesn't have the same luxury or ability.”
Basile said factors like home sales and the previous appraisal go into the increase.
“What we do in a triennial update, we look at the values where they were, where we set them back in 2020 in the full reappraisal,” he said. “We compare that to sales - to current sales, to see what level the values need to increase to give them to a current market, bring them up to current market value,” he said.
Basile said they do this process in each neighborhood, and use home sales data from 2022, the data he said they are permitted to use by the state.
The Summit County Fiscal Office tells me that they have received calls from community members asking about the tax impact, oftentimes with the misunderstanding that if property values are going up by roughly 31%, so will their taxes.
“It's a common misconception,” Basile said. “People think that they will rise in proportion to the value, but they will not, due to that House Bill 920, the effective rate will drop to compensate for a large increase in value. Thus they will not increase to a proportionate level.”
According to Mike Migden, Assistant Chief of Staff at the Summit County Fiscal Office, there are still a number of unknowns when it comes to calculating tax bills at this time. For example, he said depending on where you live, there may be levies on the November ballot, and he also said the office is still waiting on tax rates from the state. However, he said if you would like a ballpark estimate, homeowners can call the fiscal office.
If homeowners disagree with their new home value, there are a number of different steps they can take. First, they can go through the informal appeals process, which lasts from now through the end of September. That involves setting up a meeting, which can be virtual, via phone, or in-person, with a county appraiser.
For example, Basile said if there are conditions of your home that an appraiser may not have been able to see, such as a flooding issue, recent storm damage, or interior condition, homeowners should tell the county, so they can see whether a change in the property’s assigned value is necessary.
“So if they can share that information with us, it can go a long way to help us ensure that that value is appropriate for that particular property,” he said.
Migden said already, there have been 1,600 meetings scheduled by citizens to go over their home value. If homeowners do not get a satisfactory result from their meeting, they can move forward in the formal appeal process, by filing with the Board of Revision.
That’s the process Akron resident Gerald Braden went through in 2020, after he received a letter in the county’s sexennial reappraisal that showed his home value was going up, despite issues with water damage and flooding in his home.
“I just was aghast when I saw that, and started doing research right away to see what I can do,” Braden said. “The amount of time that put into this was a lot. If I would have had a family and was younger, I don’t know where I would have found the time to do all this research and everything.”
Ultimately, Braden’s appeal with the board was successful, and his home value was lowered. However, he recently received a letter in the mail for the triennial reappraisal that shows his home value more than doubling. Now, he’s unsure of what his future holds, though he knows he wants to stay in the home he’s lived in for years.
“I don’t want to be forced to move out because someone in Columbus says, ‘you don’t deserve this house because you can’t afford to pay the taxes that we’re telling you to pay,’” he said.
While he’s grateful the appeal worked in his favor last time, he believes something needs to be different in the process.
“I’m blessed that they did find in my favor, but it needs to go beyond that, there needs to be some changes in the appraisal methods and the property tax methods that they have for this state,” he said.
On the Summit County Fiscal Office website, there is a dashboard page, which has additional details about booking meetings, and resources available.
