APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Appleton city leaders say a growing economy has largely increased the value of Appleton homes.
This is coming after a reevaluation of thousands of residential properties by the city assessor.
Appleton’s last state-mandated citywide reassessment took place five years ago.
City of Appleton assessor DeAnn Brosman tells FOX 11 average home value is up 20% since then.
“It’s a great thing for homeowners because they’re seeing more value in their home, and a lot of people have all their wealth in their house, or much of their wealth, so it’s a great thing that homes are appreciating.”
Brosman says a poor housing market caused the city to reduce home values in 2014 and 2010.
This year, 20,000 homes were reviewed, bringing their assessed values up to current market prices.
“The goal of it is to re-establish fairness and equity between properties because they don’t all appreciate at the same rate.”
Property taxes pay for city services like roads, snow plowing, and public safety.
Brosman said a common misconception many residents have is that when the property value goes up, so does the property tax, but that’s not always the case.
“The tax rate, which is the other component of your tax bill, comes down to counteract most of this increase. Some tax bills will go up, some will come down, some will stay the same.”
This is a redistribution of the tax burden, but it doesn’t mean taxes as a whole, go up.
“As a matter of fact, they can’t, because we have this tax levy limit put on us by the state, so we can only raise our total tax collection by 1.3% this coming year.”
Brosman says what the assessment does is determine who pays and how much they pay.
“What we’ve noticed, for example, is that homes between $100,000 and $300,000 have appreciated more than the others, so they’ll be paying a little bit more in comparison to the others.”
Brosman also says they’ll be paying a little bit more, compared to commercial property, which hasn’t appreciated as quickly.
All homeowners will begin receiving assessment notices at the end of this week.
The city assessor says homeowners have a period of time to come in and question the assessment or provide evidence of different market value. That will be held later this month for two weeks.
The City of Neenah and the Village of Harrison will also be conducting reassessments this year.
