I'm sure all the city property owners recieve their property tax reassesment last weekend or today.  I own several properties and I was surprise to see the properties on Arco Ave. fell 20.5%.  The one in the St. Louis Hills area only went down 5.9%.  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see my property taxes go down but why the big change on Arco.  I would think with all the development in the Forest Park Southeast area, The Grove development, and the adjoining Cortex construction, the Arco property taxes would have gone up.

I dont know the answer, but i was surprised to see the same deal on the south side of FPSE.

Your taxes may not go down unless the drop in your assessed value is greater than average. Taxing entities can raise tax rates across the board to remain revenue neutral.

Taxes definitely dropped. Anything to do with tower grove now being included in the historic district? Seems like this would have the opposite affect.

Forgive my ignorance on the subject, as I've never owned property (and, really, I'm in no hurry to). Can someone tell me how property taxes are determined on the local level and why it seems most owners want to pay more. I understand if you're selling -- it sets a higher starting price, but I've never really understood why someone would buy in the first place if they suspected they'd sell soon after. Or is it just that higher property rates assure neighboring properties are only attainable by those with a higher income?

And surprisingly, this comes from a guy who's currently tasked with budgeting almost $400,000 annually in additional property tax levies as part of a City-sanctioned (Chicago, not STL), neighborhood improvement district.

Thanks in advance.

Kevin B wrote:Forgive my ignorance on the subject, as I've never owned property (and, really, I'm in no hurry to). Can someone tell me how property taxes are determined on the local level and why it seems most owners want to pay more. I understand if you're selling -- it sets a higher starting price, but I've never really understood why someone would buy in the first place if they suspected they'd sell soon after. Or is it just that higher property rates assure neighboring properties are only attainable by those with a higher income?

Yep, I never got it either. I especially don't want it to go up faster than average within the local taxing district. That's a double whammy - you get hit with the increased tax rate of the entities that tax your district, AND you shoulder a larger part of the burden than your neighbors.

Not that assessed values have ANYthing to do with actual property values. They're ridiculous. My has skyrocketed by about 9% per year compounded while neighbors in identical (truly, down to the square inch) homes have dropped 20% over the past 10 years. No sense at all.

The appraised value of my house in ONSL went from $8100 to $8400. They clearly did not notice the $150,000 worth of work in the last two years, which I found rather interesting. Not that it matters since I have 100% property tax abatement for ten years starting now and was locked in at a low value.

Stltoday - Home values are rising across the St. Louis area. Higher tax bills could follow.

"Reassessment notices hit St. Louis residents’ mailboxes this week, and they’re showing an average increase in home value of about 10%, city Assessor Michael Dauphin said."

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/gov ... 7ce0b.html

My assessment went up 35% this year. Insane, but thankfully I can afford it. I feel for those who can’t. Real estate tax should be based on the income of the homeowner, and not based on inflating home values. Feels more like a capital gains tax that hurts the lower and middle class. Wouldn’t be surprised if voters revolt and we see something similar to Prop 13 in California.


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My homeowner's  insurance premiums have gone up way more than my assessments over the years. Has that happened to everybody or is it just me?

Strange. My assessment came in almost identical…in fact my tax is going down albeit only $30 roughly. I do agree though my insurance premium has been going up by a lot and I am looking into it. The tax per the city and what the insurance company are showing aren’t close to the same.

My taxes are about $32 higher than they were last year. Although if I had a separated SFH instead of just half the building I'm sure it would have been higher.

billikens_19 wrote: ↑

May 12, 2023

My assessment went up 35% this year. Insane, but thankfully I can afford it. I feel for those who can’t. Real estate tax should be based on the income of the homeowner, and not based on inflating home values. Feels more like a capital gains tax that hurts the lower and middle class. Wouldn’t be surprised if voters revolt and we see something similar to Prop 13 in California.


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Real estate taxes should be based on real estate. 

Mine went up ~11% and I'm not happy about it but I would say it is still low compared to property taxes in the county.

My assessment went up 33% this year (in U City).  Based on the recent sale prices of some nearby homes, I guess I'm not surprised. 

Keep in mind that the Hancock Amendment caps the rate of growth, so if assessments go up a lot overall then the property tax rate will come down.

quincunx wrote: ↑

May 13, 2023

Keep in mind that the Hancock Amendment caps the rate of growth, so if assessments go up a lot overall then the property tax rate will come down.

My assumption is that in our current inflationary environment most taxing districts will have their property tax revenue growth capped at the maximum 5% allowed under Hancock. (Excluding revenue from new onstruction.)  But of course the adjustments for individual property owners will vary widely. Also, commercial reassessments appear to be largely flat, at least in the city.

If you feel as if your property has been assessed unfairly,  I would highly recommend using these guys to appeal to the equalization board. 

https://parresidential.com/

I used to own several rental properties which were assessed at a higher value than my primary residence and they were able to lower by almost 50%.

Is there grounds for reassessment if some of your neighbors homes are way under appraised? IE, there's a 7000 sq ft church converted to a home that's appraised for HALF of what we are.  Similarly, huge brick homes that are appraised for half of ours too.  What's the process here? Is it just because they haven't been sold at higher values yet?

My assessment was up 6.9%.

My taxes and insurance combined have basically doubled since I bought my current home in 2019. The level of service I receive back from the City has declined commensurately. Really not sure What I'm paying for at this point as we send our kids to private school anyway. We would probably move out of the City except the housing market is (still) completely bonkers, mortgage interest rates are more than double what I'm currently paying, and I'm convinced the long-term prospects for the 'burbs are even worse.

If only my homeowner's insurance premium went up only 6.9% every two years. My assessment has gone up 28.2% from 2009 to 2023. It dropped in 2013, so from 2013-2023 it's up 51.7%.

bwcrow1s wrote: ↑

May 13, 2023

Is there grounds for reassessment if some of your neighbors homes are way under appraised? IE, there's a 7000 sq ft church converted to a home that's appraised for HALF of what we are.  Similarly, huge brick homes that are appraised for half of ours too.  What's the process here? Is it just because they haven't been sold at higher values yet?

Can anyone answer this for me? Homes double our square footage are assessed at half of what ours are, and I know they are well kept, nice properties.  Even more land too.

I’ll ask the assessor tomorrow

bwcrow1s wrote: ↑

May 13, 2023

Is there grounds for reassessment if some of your neighbors homes are way under appraised? IE, there's a 7000 sq ft church converted to a home that's appraised for HALF of what we are.  Similarly, huge brick homes that are appraised for half of ours too.  What's the process here? Is it just because they haven't been sold at higher values yet?

This is interesting. Amid some discussion of gentrification and claims that long time owners were being taxed out of their homes, I looked at the assessment history of a couple of homes in TGS that hadn't been renovated or sold for over 15 years.   Those assessments had gone up on average 2.5 percent per year, while other homes on the same block had gone up by 5% a year on average.  There were clearly big jumps when a home was renovated and sold, but there was no impact on the neighboring home that was unrenovated and unsold.  These homes were relatively unaffected by the neighborhood improvement and tracked more closely to city-wide increases in assessed value. So, I suspect sales and major improvements do trigger a closer look at assessed value.