If you are a property owner in Sioux City, you likely have heard grumbling over increased assessments that arrived in the mail this week. Siouxland Public Media's Sheila Brummer looks at the issue and what people can do about it.
Breezy Struthers says a letter from the Sioux City Assessor brought some unwanted news.
"You open it, and you're like, oh, really?
Struthers saw the value of her home increase more than 30% in a couple of years.
"Since 2020, it’s been going up. It just compounds every single year. And it's just if you haven't done any physical changes or anything to your home, it's just kind of hard to stomach."
Struthers isn't alone. Other property owners also saw higher assessments, 23% across the board.
"I'm sure that I'm just one of the many 1000s of frustrated homeowners that are dealing with this."
Sioux City Assessor Tyler Erickson says his office is receiving many calls from concerned citizens, confused about the process.
"It's just that the market has been so crazy in the last year that it has actually increased that much."
Erickson says to follow state law, a property's assessed value must come within 5% of market value. The letter that went out this week reflects the real estate market locally in January 2023.
"And that being said, with high sale prices and the assessed values being so much lower, we're having to see these assessed values go up. Some areas are pretty extreme. Other areas are not so bad."
Struthers and others worry an increase in value equals a higher tax bill, but Erickson says that's not necessarily the case due to a rollback.
"And the rollback is in place to help curb inflation and high increases. So, our taxable value is not going to increase at the same rate as our assessed value. For instance, the state rollback takes all the taxable value across the state, and it does not allow that taxable value to increase by more than 3% in any given year. So even though we have values going up across the state 26%, the taxable value is only supposed to go up 3%.”
Erickson says his office is willing to work with property owners with questions or concerns about their value being too high.
"Every single sale that happened in 2022 is on that web page with photos, sale prices, and addresses. So, you can really look and see in your area what houses are selling for. And am I in that range? Can I find houses that look like mine, are similar to mine, that are selling, and what are they selling for? And if you find that yours isn't matching up, give us a call. And obviously, something in our information may not be correct. And we'll take a look at that. We can come out to the property. We can run comparables and try to narrow them down individually for the property. The last option would be to appeal to the Board of Review. And a formal appeal happens between April 2 and April 30. They can find that form on our webpage or stop by our office. And we can print one out for them."
Even Erickson admits his own assessment jumped by about 30% this year.
"And I live in a 1,200 square foot house with a small garage."
To check out comparable sales for property in Sioux City clickhere.