Staff report
DAYTON — Montgomery County is experiencing “a robust real estate market in uncertain times,” according to County Auditor Karl Keith. Keith.
He announced the tentative results of his office’s 2020 Property Reappraisal on Thursday, July 23, showing the county has gained $1.8 billion in property value – its largest increase since 2005.
This growth represents a 7 percent overall increase in Montgomery County property values. Residential values in the county will increase 7.4 percent, while commercial values will rise 5.9 percent.
A mobust market
Each of Montgomery County’s 252,000 properties was reviewed individually during the reappraisal, which is based on property characteristics and real estate sales between 2017 and 2019. Because each property is reviewed individually, the amount of value change will vary by community, and even within individual neighborhoods, Keith said.
However, most property owners can expect to see an increase. 70 percent of residential properties will increase in value as a result of this year’s valuation update, a sharp turnaround from 2014, when more than 70 percent of residential properties decreased in value.
Montgomery County has recovered much of the property value it lost during the recession. Between 2007 and 2014, the county lost $3.5 billion in property value. In the years since, it has regained $3.3 billion in value.
These changes are based on a total of more than 25,000 valid residential real estate sales in Montgomery County between 2017 and 2019, more sales than any other three-year cycle in recent history. Nearly 78 percent of these properties sold for more than their current taxable value.
Uncertain times
Since the kickoff of the 2020 Property Reappraisal in September 2018, Montgomery County has been struck by two major crises: the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes and the economic uncertainty of this year’s COVID-19 pandemic.
“Montgomery County has been through a lot in the last year, bringing unique challenges to the reappraisal process,” said Keith. “But I’m proud of the way my team has responded to the uncertain times that we’re living in.”
Outreach efforts last year by the auditor’s office brought property tax relief to more than 1,200 owners of tornado damaged properties, resulting in a $46 million value reduction in tornado-impacted areas. Keith says tornado damage to properties that did not receive tax relief will be removed from the county’s value sheets later this year.
Since COVID-19 reached Ohio in early 2020, the health crisis will not impact the property reappraisal, which is based on the years 2017 to 2019. Earlier this summer, Keith requested a one-year delay of the reappraisal in an effort to consider the 2020 pandemic when setting the new property values. That request was denied by the Ohio Tax Commissioner. The future impact of the virus on the county’s real estate market is uncertain, according to Keith.
Looking forward
The reappraisal results announced Thursday are tentative, and have not yet been approved by the Ohio Department of Taxation. These results do not include new construction that took place in 2020, tornado damage to properties whose owners did not apply for tax relief, or values of agricultural properties in the CAUV (Current Agricultural Use Value) program. This information will be released later this year.
Keith will announce jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction results of the property reappraisal in a Zoom meeting with local government officials at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 28th. The media will be invited to attend that virtual meeting.
