If you just bought a house, it may be a good time to check the accuracy of your property tax assessment, experts say.
Your property tax assessment is the way officials determine the value of your property for tax purposes. Inaccuracies about your home that factor into that formula could mean that you’re overpaying.
If it’s inaccurate, you likely have most of the essential documents you need to appeal, as part of your recent home purchase, according to Sal Cataldo, a real estate lawyer and partner at O’Doherty & Cataldo in Sayville, New York.
The title report, for instance, is going to tell you the age of the house, Cataldo said. You might have a home inspection report on hand that details the property’s flaws, as well as an appraisal and your mortgage, which show the value of the house and the comparable value in the neighborhood.
“You’ve gotten a wealth of information about your house, whether you realize it or not,” Cataldo said.
More from Personal Finance:
House Republican bill calls for bigger child tax credit
College majors with the best and worst job prospects
Here’s how to save on groceries amid food price inflation
A home sale will typically trigger a property tax reassessment because the property is changing hands, with the new market value applied to the assessment. But the specific rules of when the new value is applied and the frequency of reassessments will depend on your area.
Here’s why it may be valuable to add reviewing your property tax assessment to your to-do list as a newly minted homeowner:
Property taxes on the rise
In addition to your mortgage payment, home insurance and maintenance costs, property taxes are another factor to consider as you assess your housing expenses.
In recent years, property taxes have climbed because of rising home values and tax rates.
The median property tax bill in the U.S. in 2024 was $3,500, up 2.8% from $3,349 in 2023, according to an April report by Realtor.
How much you pay varies widely depending on where you live, and some areas see higher bills and price hikes.
As of 2023, the median property tax for homeowners in New York City was $9,937, LendingTree found in a recent report. The city ranks first among the metropolitan areas with the highest median property taxes. Rounding out the top three are San Jose, California and San Francisco, where homeowners paid a median $9,554 and $8,156, respectively.
Inaccuracies may be costing you
It’s not uncommon for properties to be over-assessed, meaning you end up paying more taxes than you should be, said Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation: “It pays to check.”
Sometimes it’s because details in your assessment were never corrected over the years, such as an incorrect square footage of livable space or the amount of bathrooms that are actually in your home.
NTUF estimates 30% to 60% of taxable property in the U.S. is over-assessed, based on reports from individual state tax assessors.
Success in the appeal can lead to savings for several years as the change becomes the basis for the next assessment, said Sepp. While some state or local governments reassess annually, others have less-frequent cycles with gaps of several years. Some have no set schedule at all.
Over 40% of homeowners across the U.S. could potentially save $100 or more per year by protesting their assessment value, with median savings of $539 a year, per Realtor.com estimates.
