Appraisal shock: tax valuations rise for nine out of 10 Sedgwick County homeowners
When you get your property tax appraisal notice in the mail early next month, prepare to see a higher number than you’re used to.
As a result of an overheated housing market, the median sale price of homes in Sedgwick County topped $200,000 for the first time.
Consequently, tax appraisals are up this year for 88% of residential property owners, appraiser Mark Clark reported to the County Commission on Wednesday. Only 3% of homes declined in value.
The median increase is 7%, largest for homes in the coveted $175,000-$225,000 band where the market is hottest, Clark said.
The tax appraisal increases are actually driven by sales of new and existing homes.
In the past year, the median sale price of homes rose more than 12% to $203,000 — an increase of $22,000 from the median price of $181,000 a year ago.
Don’t blame the appraiser, who’s required by law to report tax appraised values between 90% and 110% of the property’s market value. Right now, appraisals are running a bit below that threshold at 84.5%, although Clark said he expects that to creep to over 90% in the next six months as houses continue to change hands.
It’s a good-news-not-so-good-news story, said commission Chairman David Dennis.
“Most people are going to see that their personal worth is going up, that’s good news,” he said. “But also it kind of shows that inflation is going up also and that’s kind of a bad news.”
Commissioners were quick to point out that there’s not a direct relationship between rising property appraisals and property taxes, although it often works out that way.
Later this year, the county will set a budget based on the cost of providing government services and that determines the property tax rate, also called the mill levy.
“There’s a misunderstanding between valuations and taxes,” Commissioner Jim Howell said. “We pass a budget and that determines how big the (government spending) pie is, and what your valuations do, is they tell us how to divide that pie.”
Theoretically, the county could keep its budget flat and bring the tax rate down to the point where it would offset the rising appraisal valuations.
But Howell and Dennis both said that’s not realistic because costs of salaries, fuel and materials are going up too.
“Everything that we buy, everything that we do costs more money than it did in the past,” Dennis said. “So will there be an increase in the amount of money that is necessary to continue government? Absolutely.”
The county is bracing for a deluge of comments from angry homeowners after the appraisal notices are mailed out on March 1.
“The majority of the e-mails and phone calls I get — that don’t have anything to do with COVID or masks — relate to property taxes,” Dennis said. “I expect to receive a lot of e-mails and phone calls here after the first of March.”
Residents who think they’ve wronged by the appraisal process have 30 days to appeal.
The appeal form is on the back of the appraisal notice.
To start an appeal, fill out that form and return it to the appraiser’s office address in the mailing.
The agency will begin conducting informal appraisal reviews by telephone for complaining taxpayers, starting on March 15.
The appraisal picture was more stable for commercial property, where 47% of buildings saw increased tax appraisals, 36% stayed the same and 17% declined.
Three quarters of the agricultural land in the county either stayed the same or declined.
Forty-five percent of ag land decreased in value, with the typical decrease being 4%; 30% was unchanged and 25% rose in value. The typical increase was 11%, Clark reported.
However, farmland taxes are deeply discounted in the assessment process from what homeowners or other types of business pay, so agricultural property taxes are a minuscule part of the county’s revenue.
Agriculture accounts for 68% of the county’s land, but represents less than 1% of the assessed tax valuation, Clark said.
