Skyrocketing home value lands large complaint with Assessor’s Office

While most would be thrilled to learn their home jumped in value, Joshua Bowen says his gigantic leap is too good to be true.

The Teller County Assessor’s Office mailed out 2013 home value assessments last month. To Bowen’s surprise, his home appreciated by $98,000.

“It seems excessive for sure,” said Bowen.

So Bowen did a little investigating into recent home sales and is filing an appeal with the County.

He believes they overvalued his home by about $70,000.

The increased value would increase his property taxes by $600 a year. “Taxes are a really big issue for us,” he said. Bowen said it was a determining factor in why he chose the property. “We needed to make sure the taxes weren’t tremendous so we could get the house we wanted,” said Bowen.

Teller County Assessor Betty Clark-Wine said a computer system determines a homes value. This year, Clark-Wine said they upgraded their system and it more accurately assesses a home’s condition. For that reason, she believes many homes were undervalued in the past which could be why Bowen’s home increased so much.

Clark-Wine said they allow homeowners to appeal their property value. At that point, they will send a person to do the assessment. To make an appeal, the deadline is Monday. They will have a response back within 30 days.

To protest your home value, visit the Teller County Assessor’s Web page. You have until midnight to submit a rebuttal online. You can also mail or fax it in by midnight. Clark-Wine reminds everyone to make sure the form is signed, otherwise it won’t be submitted.

Clark-Wine said they received the most protests after valuations were done in 2007. That year, they received more than 2,500 complaints. She estimates there are about 26,000 personal properties in the county.

During the 2013 assessments, Clark-Wine released these numbers about home values:

Woodland Park: Overall increase 1.9%. High end homes, especially over 700K, have fallen significantly

Victor: Overall decrease 10%

Cripple Creek: Flat to declining trend in values

Rural NW Area: Overall decline 10%

Rural SE Area: Overall decline of 1.5%

Rural SW: 3.1% decline

“Overall: some increases are driven by corrections in property quality and condition, which are significant drivers in the model. This year our data is making bad data and information more apparent and we are working to rectify this, but if it isn’t correct this valuation year, it will be reflected in 2015,” she said.

“Also, I am emphasizing that this is mass appraisal, the method used for applying the unsold property data to the sold property date. It isn’t perfect … it is statistics that only measures the date that is input into the model. We invite the property owner to look at the comparable sales posted online and to call us for an explanation or to set an appointment to review their property and the date. This is the time to make corrections and to manually review the property to see if it ‘fits’ the model or if adjustments need to be made,” said Clark Wine.

KRDO checked with a couple of other counties about their home values. The El Paso County assessor said values have remained flat since 2011. But Mark Lowderman said he has seen some increases particularly in neighborhoods like Pikes Peak Park that has had a lot of foreclosures in which a person, bought the home and “flipped” for a profit.

In Pueblo County, Assessor Frank Beltran says home values have fallen about 5 percent.