Most Jefferson County homeowners have received notice that the assessed value of their homes has increased over the past two years.
Those residents may have to pay additional property taxes on the difference between the old and new assessed valuations, but that amount won’t be determined until later in the year when taxing entities set their tax levies, county Assessor Bob Boyer said.
“When we get calls into the office, frequently it’s from people who look at the difference in their assessed value from the old one and the new one and assume that’s how much more they’re going to be paying in (property) taxes. That’s not the case,” Boyer said.
By state law, the Assessor’s Office is charged with fixing a fair-market value to each piece of property in the county. Taxing entities like school districts, fire and ambulance districts and others levy a certain amount of taxes based on the assessed valuation, which for homes is 19 percent of what the Assessor’s Office determines is the home’s market rate.
“We don’t raise or lower property taxes at the Assessor’s Office,” Boyer said. “All we do is determine a fair value. The boards governing the different taxing entities determine the tax rates and what they spend your money on.”
The state orders assessor’s offices in each county to perform a reassessment of all residential property every two years.
“The process starts in the previous October,” Boyer said. “This year, we had been studying the real estate market and what it’s been doing the last couple of years. Because of how hot the real estate market has been – we’ve all heard stories of homes selling for more than what they were advertised for – we were fairly certain going into it that most properties would see an increase.”
However, as Boyer pointed out, the Hancock Amendment requires local taxing entities to roll back their tax rates so they don’t receive a windfall from reassessments.
Boyer said of the approximately 103,000 residential properties in the county, about 90,000 received notices of increased assessed valuation.
“It’s impossible to give an across-the-board percentage figure (for the increase),” he said. “We don’t look at it as a one-size-fits-all assessment. We look at how sales of comparable homes are doing in your market.”
The market for a home in the older section of Festus or De Soto, for instance, may be different than homes in newer sections of those cities, and can differ greatly from subdivisions in Arnold and Imperial or other parts of the county.
“The Windswept Farms subdivision in Eureka is particularly hot,” Boyer said. “In real estate, they say, ‘Location, location, location’ and it’s certainly true. Jefferson County is seeing people from the city and St. Louis County wanting to live here, trying to get away from government overregulation and the social problems they see. But they may still be working up there, so areas around the major highways have seen particular increases in value.”
Boyer said he does not believe any homeowner in Jefferson County realized a percentage increase in their assessed valuation of 23 percent, which he said is the average over four years in the St. Louis metropolitan area, unless they made major improvements or took possession in the middle of the year, when real estate taxes are prorated.
“Other areas saw increases in 2019, but we didn’t because we didn’t feel the market (at the time) reflected that,” Boyer said. “Homeowners in other places saw increases in both 2019 and this year.”
Homeowners dissatisfied with their new assessed valuations may appeal by calling the Assessor’s Office at 636-797-5466 or sending an email to reassessor@jeffcomo.org.
“We get quite a few calls from people who just say, ‘I’m not happy because my taxes are too high.’ We can’t address that. But if you have documentation that you don’t believe your assessed value is fair, we’ll sit down and talk with you about that.”
Boyer said historically, about 200 residential property owners each cycle get to that stage, and only two or three take their case to the Board of Equalization, a three-person appointed panel that rules on appeals.
“If you feel like your assessed value is too high, based on information you have, we’d like to see that. We do take such things into consideration. Our goal is to try to determine what a fair value is.”