Boise-area home prices are up sharply. Here’s what coming property assessments will show
Property assessment notices are scheduled to reach Treasure Valley homeowners and businesses at the end of May or the start of June. And once again, assessed values are up.
Home sales prices in the Boise area have skyrocketed, with no sign of stopping anytime soon. The Ada County Assessor’s office estimates that the median residential property assessment will be up by around 30%. The median is the midpoint, meaning half of all assessment increases will be greater and half will be less.
Ada County Deputy Assessor Brad Smith provided the Idaho Statesman with estimates of assessment increases, though he said appraisers are still working until next week.
Thirty percent marks a record high for Ada County assessment increases. Last year, Assessor Bob McQuade said the county’s 28% increase was the largest increase he had seen since he was first elected in 1994.
“People gotta remember half of those properties are going up more than (30%),” Smith said. “I think most people are going to understand, we are one of the fastest-appreciating markets. But sometimes people don’t realize until it is actually comes in their assessment notice.”
The median home sales price increase was 26% in Ada County last year, and around 31% this year, Smith said. Idaho law requires the assessor’s office to have assessments within 10% of actual sales price values.
To determine assessments, the county assessor’s office looks at median home sales prices increases in an area, such as the Boise Bench or Nampa, and then applies those percentages to all homes in that area.
An increase in property assessment does not equal a tax bill increase
Smith wanted to remind homeowners that just because they see a 30% increase in their assessed value, their property taxes are most likely not going to go up by 30%.
Local taxing jurisdictions such as cities, counties and school districts are limited by state law in how much they can raise taxes each year. Any taxing district can reduce its levy rates — the percentage of a property’s value that the particular local government will collect — to offset the assessment increase on residential property. In a housing market like the Treasure Valley’s, they almost certainly will reduce those rates. One question is whether they’ll lower rates enough to keep tax increases low or nonexistent.
“The relationship between that increase and their property taxes are what most people are concerned with,” Smith said, by phone. “They don’t care about the value, but they care when you have a tax bill later on.”
The city councils, county commissions and other taxing districts will determine what the bills will look like when they set their budgets for the next year around October. Homeowners will receive their property tax bills in November.
Commercial property values rise more slowly
Smith said the estimated commercial property values are up 25%.
The property tax burden is shared by homeowners and commercial property owners. Last year, 76% of the total burden fell on residential property owners and 23% on commercial businesses, according to the Ada County assessor’s website.
To understand the relationship between a homeowner’s assessed value and the possible tax bill, the assessor’s office has an online graph that shows the median assessed value in Ada County from 2000 and the median total tax. In 2021, the median value was $379,400 and the median tax was $2,400, according to the website.
Assessments are scheduled to be mailed out by Monday, June 6, but Smith said people will most likely get their assessment between May 31 and June 3.
Smith said the assessor’s office is also scheduled to have its online property map updated by Friday, May 27, for people eager to see their home’s latest assessed value.
This story was originally published May 9, 2022 at 11:13 AM.
