Increases in property values may raise taxes

Franklin County homeowners now can learn how much the county thinks their home is worth.

Auditor Clarence Mingo’s office on Friday mailed out new value estimates to owners of all 430,000 parcels in the county.

For homeowners who can’t wait for the mail, the auditor posted the new values on his website, www.franklincountyauditor.com, at 11:59 p.m. Friday. Homeowners can find a link to the new value on top of the summary page of their property.

Mingo’s office estimates that property values rose 14 percent since values were last updated in 2014, reflecting the housing-market recovery over the past few years.

That change in value is consistent with estimates from the real-estate website Zillow, but it is well below the 21.6 percent increase in median home-sale prices over the past three years, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The auditor found that value increases ranged from 8.5 percent in the Dublin school district to 29.9 percent in the Grandview Heights district.

Fortunately for homeowners, taxes will not rise anywhere near that much.

Because of state limits on how much additional revenue schools and other taxing bodies can collect from rising property values, taxes will increase about 2 percent countywide, ranging from 1.3 percent in Dublin to 4 percent in Grandview Heights.

Most homeowners will Bexley Canal Winchester Columbus Dublin Gahanna Jefferson Grandview Heights Groveport Madison Hamilton Local Hilliard Licking Heights New Albany-Plain Local Reynoldsburg South-Western Upper Arlington Westerville Whitehall Worthington * Includes levy increase pay about $50 more a year in taxes for each $100,000 in home value.

Homeowners unhappy with their property-value estimate can challenge it in a series of 17 sessions throughout the county starting Sept. 5.

“The release of values is hardly the end to this process,” Mingo said.

Charles Bluestone, founder of the Bluestone Law Group in Columbus, strongly encourages property owners concerned about their values to attend the special sessions.

“It’s an extra swing at the ball,” said Bluestone, whose firm heavily focuses on property-tax appeals. “It’s convenient, and it’s usually fast and less expensive than waiting until the formal reviews in the first quarter of the year.”

Bluestone estimates that 85 percent of his clients who have challenged their values in the sessions are successful. Mingo said about 60 percent of homeowners who challenged their bills during the last series of sessions received some change.

After the sessions are completed, final valuations will be sent to homeowners in November. Those values will form the basis for tax bills mailed in December.

If homeowners remain dissatisfied, they can challenge values during the annual board of review meetings in February and March.

Franklin County joins Licking and Delaware counties in sending out new property-value estimates. In Licking County, home values rose 14.1 percent since 2014, and in Delaware County, they rose 10.5 percent.

Pickaway homeowners will receive their notices, reflecting a 9 percent countywide increase, this fall, said county Auditor Melissa Betz.

Madison County didn’t return phone calls on Friday, but it is due for a reappraisal this year.

Fairfield and Union counties next will reappraise their property in 2019.