See where Canyon County homeowners’ property values rose fastest in the new assessments
Canyon County may finally be seeing a steadying of property prices after a few years of explosive gains during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The county had already seen surging home prices and assessments for years before the pandemic and after the Great Recession, but the surge only intensified when the pandemic hit in 2020 — in part due to the Treasure Valley’s ballooning population as people relocated to Idaho .
“People moved here in droves,” said Canyon County Assessor Brian Stender.
This increased demand helped shoot prices up and contributed to years of double-digit percentage increases in median property assessments before going down about 3% to 5% last year, according to prior Idaho Statesman reporting.
Average countywide property assessments ticked upward once again from 2023 to 2024 by about 2.5%, from about $471,000 to about $482,000, according to most recent data from the Canyon County Assessor’s Office.
Assessed values are always based upon sales that happened in the previous year and are 100% of market value at the end of that year, Stender said by phone. That means that 2024’s assessments were based on property sales in 2023. Your house may be worth more or less if you tried to sell it this month or six months from now, depending on the housing market.
Higher assessments don’t necessarily mean you’ll pay higher taxes. Taxes depend mostly on how much money taxing districts — such as cities, counties and school districts — need to pay for budgets they are working on now for their fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Property owners will get tax bills based on those budgets in November, with taxes due in December.
Star saw the biggest jump in assessed values, jumping 5.1% from about $1.02 million in 2023 to about $1.08 million in 2024, according to assessment data. Bigger cities in Canyon County including Caldwell and Nampa saw more modest increases, with Caldwell rising 1.7% to nearly $365,000 and Nampa increasing 2.3% to just over $389,000.
The average assessed value in 2024 was highest in Middleton, which increased 1.9% to nearly $440,000. Melba increased 3.1% to just over $300,000, Notus 2.2% to about $300,500, Parma 2.5% to about $293,000, and Greenleaf 1.8% to over $377,000.
Wilder, which the Canyon County Assessor’s Office divided into “Wilder Original City” and “Wilder Newer City,” was the only area that saw a decrease. “Original City” saw a $419 drop to just under $239,000, while “Newer City” saw a 2.7% drop to roughly $319,500.
Despite the slower growth in assessed values for most areas, the numbers are still sky-high compared with in the past. The average assessed value county-wide in 2018 was nearly $202,000, according to assessor data.
“(Property) values have more than doubled since 2018,” said Greg Himes, chief appraiser for Canyon County. “It’s just been pretty amazing what values have done.”
Virtually all areas of Canyon County have seen average property assessments increase by over 110% since 2018, with some areas such as “Wilder Original City” increasing over 157% from nearly $93,000 to almost $239,000.
The changes were a lot smaller from 2023 to 2024 than prior years and happened in pockets, Himes saud. Some areas went up a lot in price while some went down.
Stender said one of the biggest impacts on assessments has been interest rates.
“That’s just kind of slowed down the whole thing,” Stender said.
The increases in residential home prices have also pushed first-time homebuyers out of the market, while others have dropped to mobile homes, driving up the value of mobile homes, Stender said.
Despite the upswing in prices, the region is still growing.
“With interest rate increases, we would’ve expected a softening of the market, but we still have a strong demand of people moving here,” Stender said.
The county grew by over 8,000 residents between 2023 and 2024, according to data from the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho. Since 2018, Canyon County has added over 48,000 new residents.
Can I appeal an assessment?
Stender said that the assessor’s office sent out about 100,000 assessments this year, and residents should have already received their notices.
If you think your assessment was not accurate, you can file an appeal until 5 p.m. June 24. But Stender said that going straight for an appeal isn’t always the best or easiest bet. He wants you to call his office first.
“We really stress that if someone thinks their value is wrong that they contact one of our appraisers,” Stender said. “We resolve a very high percentage of inquiries at that stage so someone doesn’t really have to file an appeal.”
