Colorado Springs Real Estate – Appealing Assessed Values

Colorado Springs Real Estate - Property Taxes

I just bought a home and the assessed value for it on the El Paso County Assessor was $312,000 and the home appraised at the end of May 2008 for $292,000.  I submitted an appeal along with a copy of the appraisal to the County since I would obviously prefer to pay property taxes on the appraised value instead of the assessed value.

I just received a phone call from the Assessor’s Office telling me that the assessed value is based on appraised values from June 30, 2006 and comps from that time period still assess the property at $312,000.  I was told that the current appraisal for the property I submitted would fall into the next valuation period and to wait to submit an appeal until that time.

According to the El Paso County Assessor’s website:

“Pursuant to Colorado State General Property Tax Law, in defending any value for ad valorem taxation purposes, only sales occurring within a designated time frame may be used. The “data collection period” (also known as the Current Base Year) for tax years 2007 and 2008 would be sales that occurred between January 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006. This means that only properties having sold within this time frame may be used as comparables when estimating a market value! “

I should not be required to pay higher taxes on a home that is assessed at more than it was appraised!

Normally, assessed values are lower than the actual market values for homes, but there are some situations where that is not the case.  Regardless what the “Colorado State General Property Tax Law” states, I think it is ridiculous!  The market has changed and the Assessor’s Office needs to make adjustments for that, at least in my opinion.

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