Residents See Property Values Decline After Revaluation

Assessment notices were mailed out over the weekend, and if you're a property owner in Oak Creek, you almost certainly saw the value of your property go down.

Because a citywide revaluation was done in Oak Creek for the first time since 2007, the decrease was fairly significant for many.

After all, a lot has changed in the last four years. With the housing market plummeting and the Great Recession settling in, those dramatic economic changes are now reflected in residents' assessments for the first time. Changes also occur because of neighborhoods becoming more or less desirable, type or size of property, or location, among other factors.

If there's any good news for Oak Creek residents, it's that the commercial properties lost less than residential, which means the tax burden will ease a bit on homeowners, said Mark Link, state manager of Tyler Technologies, which performed the revaluation for the city.

"There's been a little bit of a shift to the commercial property owners, as they were not impacted from the change in the marketplace as much as the residential properties," Link said.

Revaluation: process and results

The goal of the revaluation was to value properties at 100 percent of their fair-market value, city Assessor Martin Kuehn said. The revaluation included a full analysis of current market conditions. Home sales that occurred in 2009-2010 were used to establish estimates for all properties.

"We believe the assessments now are mostly representative of that fair-market value," Kuehn said.

The entire city – combined commercial and residential but excluding manufacturing – lost about 8 percent in value. Over on the Oak Creek Patch Facebook page, residents reported their property values falling anywhere from $16,900 to $32,000.

The complete 2011 assessment roll is available for viewing in the assessor's office at City Hall, 8640 S. Howell Ave., and at the Oak Creek Public Library, 8620 S. Howell Ave.

Residents are encouraged to call (414) 768-5865 if they want to discuss their assessment in greater detail. It's better to speak up now than wait for the formal appeals process in September, Link said. 

Taxes

The effect of the new assessments on property owners' tax bills won't be known until the end of this year, when the various taxing jurisdictions (like the school district or municipality) set their tax levies.

It's not necessarily the case that because the value of a person’s home went down, their taxes will go down. More important is the percentage decrease compared to the average throughout the city, as well as how much local governments' tax levies went up or down. 

For example, if a person's home declined 12 percent and the average in the city was 8 percent, that person's tax burden would decrease. If the decline was 4 percent, the tax burden was increase.