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21 <br /> owners could file an appeal of their new assessed value and offered to schedule appeal <br /> workshops in communities. <br /> The County also contracted with a vendor to conduct a countywide vertical equity analysis. <br /> Vertical equity means that properties should be assessed at the same proportion of their fair <br /> market value, regardless of the property's value, to ensure that lower-priced properties and <br /> higher-priced properties exhibit the same ratio of assessed value to actual sale prices. <br /> The Tax Administration Office is also conducting neighborhood level equity analysis to determine <br /> if inequities or other anomalies exist in assessed values at the neighborhood level. <br /> This report provides a status update on appeals, the results of the countywide and neighborhood <br /> level equity analysis, and the Tax Assessment Work Group the County Manager recommended <br /> in June. <br /> Appeal Status <br /> The Tax Office received a total of 3,348 informal appeals during the informal appeal window that <br /> was open from March 21 to April 30, 2025. Following the informal appeal window, the Tax Office <br /> received an additional 908 formal appeals for a total of 4,256 appeals. Of those, there are 3,909 <br /> unique properties, with the overlap representing properties that were appealed at both informal <br /> and formal levels. Of the 908 formal apeals, 35 were not submitted by the deadline and will not <br /> be considered. Additional appeals will be received as property owners have 30 days to appeal <br /> decisions, and the last mailing of decision notices on informal appeals is expected to be at the <br /> end of August. <br /> Of the 3,909 unique properties appealed, a total of 3,637 were appeals of residential property, <br /> and 272 were appeals of nonresidential property. The Tax Office and the Board of Equalization <br /> and Review have issued decisions on 3,094 residential appeals and 173 nonresidental appeals. <br /> Value adjustments made on residential appeals had a median decrease of $25,990 in value, or <br /> about 6%, while value adjustments on nonresidential properties had a median decrease of <br /> $288,700, or about 13%. <br /> The 944 remaining appeals, along with additional appeals of informal decisions, are scheduled to <br /> be completed by mid-December 2025. The Board of Equalization and Review approved post- <br /> adjournment meetings through December 11, 2025. <br /> Countywide and Neighborhood Equity Analyses <br /> As stated above, the County contracted with a vendor to conduct a vertical equity analysis of <br /> countywide values. The analysis stratified properties by age, value, and geographic location. <br /> Graphs of the results are attached. That analysis showed that, in general, values were within the <br /> standards for vertical equity established by the International Association of Assessing Officers <br /> (IAAO) when outliers were removed from the analysis. The vendor removed any property where <br /> the assessed value deviated from the actual sale price by 25% or more which accounted for <br /> approximately 950 of 5,800 sales. <br /> The Tax Office independently conducted an equity analysis on the County's 1,026 assessment <br /> neighborhoods. The IAAO specifies that measures of vertical equity are only representative of <br /> possible inequities in neighborhoods with five (5) or more sales. Of the neighborhoods with more <br /> than five (5) sales, the Tax Office identified 86 neighborhoods that were outside of the equity <br /> standards used by the IAAO. Of the neighborhoods with less than five (5) sales, the Tax Office <br />