County tax assessors in the Denver area Wednesday reported appeals of property-tax bills are either down or about the same as two years ago.
With a notable exception in Mesa County on the Western Slope, generally stagnant or lower home values put a damper on protests, most assessors said.
“They (values) were generally down,” said Jenice Berger, director of taxpayer services for the Jefferson County Assessor’s Office. “So people were satisfied with a small decrease.”
The counties reassess values every two years. This year’s property-tax assessments were based on values from 2007 and the first part of 2008, before the recession hit. Appeals had to be postmarked by June 1. Final counts won’t be available until the end of this week, county officials said.
However, based on tallies Wednesday, Adams and Arapahoe counties expect big drops in appeals compared with 2007, while Boulder, Denver and Jefferson county officials believe the number will be on pace with two years ago.
Boulder County Assessor Jerry Roberts expected far more than the 8,900 appeals recorded so far.
“We were a little bit surprised by it,” Roberts said. “The thing about it is, lots of parts of Boulder went up in value. We were expecting more than in past years.”
However, other counties said property valuations mailed to homeowners were generally down from prior years because of foreclosures in 2007 and early 2008.
Jefferson County had received about 7,700 appeals, compared with almost 13,000 in 2007. A last-minute surge could push overall appeals close to 2007 levels, Berger said.
Arapahoe County Assessor Corbin Sakdol said the county had received 4,200 appeals so far, compared with about 9,000 two years ago.
He said values in Aurora fell across the board.
“We lowered a lot of values because of the struggling real estate market,” Sakdol said.
Adams County Assessor Gil Reyes said he saw the same trends in his county. Reyes expects about 5,000 appeals this year, compared with about 7,200 two years ago.
He said he had some property owners appeal because they thought their values were too low.
“Twenty-five percent of our phone calls were from people who wanted to raise it,” Reyes said.
Mesa County, home to Grand Junction, is recording about a 33 percent increase in appeals, said Assessor Barbara Brewer.
Brewer said the new property-tax bills reflected the skyrocketing property values from 2007 and early 2008 from the energy boom. Now, energy development has stagnated, causing property values to fall.
Appeals will probably reach 4,500, up about 1,200 from two years ago.
“The sticker shock was pretty strong,” Brewer said.
Burt Hubbard: 303-954-5107 or bhubbard@denverpost.com
