PAINESVILLE, Ohio — Several counties in Northeast Ohio are reappraising property values this year, including Cuyahoga, Stark, Lorain, Lake, Portage, Erie, and Huron. Auditors are telling 3News that, on average, home valuations will go up, but many homeowners are concerned about the increase in property taxes that will come with that.
Lake County Auditor Christopher Galloway says residential properties in his county are expected to go up by an average of about 28% this year.
"It's probably the largest increase in the last century," he admitted.
Three years ago, it was just a 17% increase.
"People see it as a positive and a negative," Galloway said of the upward trend in home valuation. "On one hand, they're very happy that their largest investment, their largest financial commitment — their biggest nest egg, if you will — in their financial portfolio is doing quite well. So I think, on the one hand, people are happy to see that. On the other hand, they are always concerned about what is that going to mean in terms of 'my property taxes, my bottom line on my wallet.'"
Galloway explained that the increase in property taxes will vary by home, but he's been warning people to expect a 10-12% percent increase. For Painesville homeowner Kyle Hunt, who has no plans to sell his proparty, it's less than ideal.
"I'm not into that at all," he said. "The increase is crazy right now. What it's going to end up doing is hurting my wallet more, and it doesn't do anything to put back into the property at all."
Galloway tells us over half of the collected property taxes will go to schools, with the rest going to roads, parks, libraries, recreation centers, and emergency responders in the county.
Over in Lorain County, Auditor Craig Snodgrass says, on average, homeowners should expect a 31% increase in home valuation this year. WKYC asked him why the spike is so sharp, and he told us its because the real estate market is lacking inventory.
"Builders cannot build them fast enough between supplies, materials, and so forth," he noted. "There is a shortage, and there's still these bidding wars on houses. You can get three, four, five, 10 bids on a home, and that's driving the values up. I hear a lot of times, 'Well, I haven't done anything with my property in 20 years. How is my value is going up?' Because everybody around you is going up, and that's the process and the system that we have to follow that's been put in place by the state."
Snodgrass emphasized that just because home values are going up 31%, that's not how much property taxes will go up by. He stressed that many Lorain County homeowners can expect only a 10-15% percent increase.
On Tuesday, Stark County Auditor Alan Harold said his team is still actively reappraising homes, so he can't give an average property valuation change yet. However, they'll be mailing out the new valuations in August.
When asked for figures, a representative from Cuyahoga County said, "We can’t answer the questions at this time, as the Appraisal Department is about 93% complete with viewing and valuing of all parcels in Cuyahoga County. Estimated values are due to the Department of Taxation the second Tuesday in June for the State’s review and approval. Until then, we will not have percentages to announce."
The state auditors we spoke with tell us that for more information, residents call their respective offices or visit their websites.