Assessment Appeal Opportunity

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Have you reviewed your or your client’s real estate property assessment with an MAI designated Real Estate Appraiser in recent years? Normally, the year-to-year change in the Common Level Factor is minor to moderate, but the CLF has risen sharply in many counties in recent years due to a significant rise in residential home sale prices (as shown above). In some counties, the Common Level Factor has increased as much as 89% since 2016! Since not all property types have increased in value equally, now is a great time to analyze whether a property is assessed and taxed at an appropriate level. In most counties, the deadline to file an assessment appeal or “tax appeal” is August 1st. 

In Pennsylvania each property is assigned an Assessment by the county’s assessor as of a certain base value year. To calculate the current Assessor’s Market Value, the Assessment is multiplied by the county’s current Common Level Factor (CLF). The CLF represents the value change between the base value year and the current year. A CLF of 1.0 indicates that there is no value change while a CLF of 1.75 indicates a value change of +75% since the base year.

For example, if a property has an Assessment of $200,000 as of the 2015 base value year and the current Common Level Factor for the 2023 tax year is 1.50, the two are multiplied and the current Assessor’s Market Value is equal to $300,000 ($200,000 X 1.50). If the CLF increases to 1.60 in 2024, the base year assessment stays the same but the implied Assessor’s Market Value as of 2024 would increase to $320,000 ($200,000 X 1.60). 

Call or email Sammartino, Stout & Lo Presti, Inc., Real Estate Appraisers, today for a no obligation consultation and to learn about our 2-step appraisal process. A sample of recent assessment appeal cases and their results as well as a map of our appraisal coverage area is provided below.