If you recently received your 2023 Real Property Notice of Valuation from the Larimer County Assessor, let me help you recover from the shock. Larimer County Assesses every property in the county every two years and recently mailed new valuations as of January 1, 2023. They looked back at comparable property sales from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2022. Features they look for are homes similar in size, age, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms and garage spaces. If you made improvements to your home during that period, the assessor gets information from the building department and they will take those improvements into account as well.
Larimer County reported that home sales during the valuation period rose 43% with an average home value of $708,000. The Estes Valley Board of Realtors produces a monthly report for the entire Estes Valley. Those reports showed a median price of homes sold for the year as of July 1, 2020 to be $513,750 and a median price for homes sold for the year as of June 2022 to be $749,250 or a 45.8% increase.
So, what can you do? Protests are accepted until June 8, 2023. There are three different ways you can provide them with information that shows why you disagree with the assessment. (1) You can set up an appointment in Fort Collins and protest in person. (2) You can protest online at https://apps.larimer.org/assessor/protest/. (3) You can mail in your protest. Larimer County experienced record protests in 2019 with reductions in value for about half of them, resulting in an average reduction of 16.4%. The state has already approved a reduction to actual value for valuation purposes of $15,000 for residential property. It seems like this is almost a given, so it will be beneficial to you protest.
We have completed many protests on behalf of our friends and are happy to provide that free, no obligation service once again. Just reach out to us at Team@EstesParkHome.com or 970-480-7820 and we can talk about the best way to protest for you.
Don’t forget about the senior exemption for property taxes. If you are age 65 or over and have owned and lived in your home for 10 consecutive years you qualify for the exemption. The exemption is for 50% of the first $200,000 of the actual value to be exempted from property tax. Let us know if you need help with that too! Visit https://www.larimer.gov/assessor/exemptions for additional information.
-Scott Thompson