Assessed property values across the Wasatch Front are skyrocketing to highs never seen before.
In Salt Lake County, assessed property values jumped 22.3 percent in the past year, while Utah County values went up 25 percent. In Davis County, property values are up 19.5 percent.
"I've been here 30 years, and I don't think I've ever seen growth like this in my time," said Richard Burgi, real property division director at the Salt Lake County Assessor's Office. "It's unreal."
Utah residents statewide recently opened their property
tax notices. Either that or they are too afraid to open it and it is still sitting on the counter.
And while some are happy to see the value of their property going up, others are angry that their taxes are going up as well.
Linda Savage was shocked when she opened her tax notice earlier this week. As a Cedar Hills resident who's living on a fixed income, Savage said she's concerned that she won't be able to keep up with the mounting taxes and stay in her home.
"I am very, very frustrated," Savage said of her property tax, which has increased by $700 since it was last paid. "I'm in a position where I'm going to be staying here, if I'm lucky, until I die. It makes no difference to me as far as my property value increasing. ... As you get older, it's just another worry that you have, and it's a worry you don't need."
No one is immune to such tax increases, not even the Davis County assessor. James Ivie lives in Bountiful and also saw his taxes jump $700 a year on his family home.
Rising property values
Utah's rising property values shouldn't be a surprise to many people, especially those who bought or sold property in the past year.
In June, the U.S. Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight reported that Utah had the highest rate of home appreciation in the nation during the first quarter of 2007.
Three Utah metropolitan areas ranked in the nation's top five: Provo-Orem was second, Salt Lake City was third and Ogden-Clearfield was fifth.
Though Davis County saw a 19.5 percent jump in real property values overall, a few cities in the county saw their values go up by more than 25 percent since 2006.
Bountiful led the county with a 30.5 percent increase, followed by Farmington at 28.5 percent, North Salt Lake at 27 percent, Kaysville at 25.8 percent, and West Point at 25.3 percent.
Salt Lake County real property values are up 22.3 percent.
The booming southwest area of Salt Lake County had the biggest jump in assessed property values, where appraisals are 28.6 percent higher than last year. Salt Lake County's smallest change in property values was in the East Millcreek area, with a 13.9 percent increase.
On the whole, Utah County's assessed property values increased by 25 percent in the past year. Just last year, the average home in Utah County was assessed at $203,000; today the average value hovers around $253,000, Utah County Assessor Kris Poulson said.
That's not to say that real estate sales figures will show the same data, however. Poulson points out that, according to multiple-listing service data, the average for single-family homes sold in Utah County was $217,100 in 2006; this year the average was $261,300, for an average increase of about 20 percent.
Utah County resident Mary Louise Sargent said she doesn't agree with those figures or any other numbers that suggest that the worth of Utah homes has legitimately skyrocketed.
"I think the whole real estate issue in Utah is inflated, highly inflated, and at some point it's going to have to come down," Sargent said. "It's just outrageous and unbelievable."
Sargent said she and her husband are planning to appeal their assessment, which they received last week, to the Utah County Board of Equalization.
The general rise in property values across Utah County helped offset any major spikes for any one particular city this year, Poulson said, so fewer people should have sticker shock when they compare their tax notices to their neighbor's.
The appraisal process
County appraisers must put a value on your home every year.
But it's not a simple process. Appraisers don't visit every single home before making a determination on your property value. Utah law only requires a review of property characteristics once every five years.
"We don't have enough people to look at 328,000 parcels a year," Burgi said.
Instead of yearly, personal visits, assessors rely on complicated computer models to appraise property.
Imagine a neighborhood with a typical 1,500-square-foot rambler with a finished basement.
The computer models can analyze other homes in the neighborhood, such as a nearby home measuring 1,400 square feet without a finished basement and another home measuring 1,600 square feet with a three-car garage.
The two homes' distinguishing factors are weighed against the typical 1,500-square-foot home, and values are assigned.
"(But we don't) just throw the data into a hopper and walk away," Ivie said.
Assessors then check for anomalies, as the model isn't always perfect, Salt Lake County Assessor Lee Gardner said.
"If we see some areas that look abnormal, we'll send someone out," Gardner said.
Remodels and new additions can also cause your property value to go up, but sometimes such additions go unnoticed by appraisers.
The Salt Lake County Assessor's Office scours through building permits to make sure they have the most up-to-date information to accurately set property values.
For new homes, an appraiser will stop by to measure the home in order to set a value to it. Once the home is finished, appraisers stop by the home again to verify the value. If a homeowner finished a basement the appraisers weren't expecting, the value of the home goes up.
About every five years, the assessor's office reappraises the area by doing a market analysis to see what comparable homes sold for.
Educating the public
If your home value didn't go up as high as the average home in the area, you'll likely pay lower taxes, unless there is a tax increase approved after a truth-in-taxation hearing.
"Our biggest problem is educating the public," Ivie said, referring to a line in a letter he received after valuation notices were mailed.
"I know that you folks jury-rig the appraisals so that you match your budget," the letter reads.
Ivie said nothing could be further from the truth.
"We can't raise revenue through valuation," he said. "They (the public) don't understand appraisals and the tax system."
Here's how it works:
Truth-in-taxation hearings prevent tax entities from cashing in on rising property values. The law prevents tax entities from collecting more property tax than the year before — except for taxes on new growth — unless they hold such a hearing.
Several tax entities across the Wasatch Front will be holding these meetings over the next few weeks, starting Tuesday.
At least 66 local governments seek to raise property-tax rates above levels that would provide the same revenue as last year, according to an analysis by the Deseret Morning News of State Tax Commission data.
Tax entities across the Wasatch Front are asking for increases to pay for everything from funding bigger operations budgets to fixing leaks in the Arthur V. Watkins Dam in Willard Bay.
Five Utah County cities and all three school districts are proposing to have truth-in-taxation hearings to increase their revenue over what they received last year.
Cedar Hills City Councilman Eric Richardson, whose city will be having a hearing in late August, said it's painful to tell residents that the city is asking for more money, but it's a necessary step to keep up with inflation.
"Every city council member and every county commissioner hates doing anything with taxes," Richard-
son said. "It's an abhorrence for most of us, but it's an issue of, when does it become a necessary evil? It's tough."
The Cottonwood Heights Parks and Recreation Service Area wants to raise taxes $20 a year on a $300,000 home to revitalize aging facilities. A hearing on that tax increase is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at 7500 S. 2700 East.
Davis County wants to raise taxes on a $210,000 home by $61.79 a year to fund operations at the new expansion at the county jail, as well as fund senior services and fix up deteriorating flood channels throughout the county. A truth-in-taxation hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at Farmington Junior High, 150 S. 200 West.
By contrast, in a year without a tax increase, most municipalities will be lowering the certified tax rate to make up for the rising values. However, because municipalities generally see growth, their budgets can get bigger every year even with a decreasing tax rate.
How to appeal
Computers aren't always right, however, so homeowners don't always agree with the appraised value.
Anyone who disagrees with the value the assessor has placed on a property can file an appeal by using the form that came with the valuation notice.
"It's a mass appraisal. There will be some that are in error that we will correct," said Liz Fehrmann, Salt Lake County's assistant tax administrator. "It's not that it's a totally futile process, which some people do believe."
Appeals must be filed with a county's board of equalization within 45 days of the valuation mailings. That's Sept. 17, in case you were starting to count the days.
Late appeals will be accepted in cases of death, medical emergencies or if the property owner never received a valuation notice, said Davis County Clerk/Auditor Steve Rawlings.
The board of equalization requires a property owner to provide evidence that the market value on the valuation notice exceeds fair-market value, which is the price a property would have when it changes hands between a willing buyer and seller.
Property owners can choose to provide three examples of comparable properties sold as close to Jan. 1, 2007, as possible.
If the board of equalization agrees, it revises the assessment and changes the property's value. But if the assessor's office disagrees, an independent hearing officer listens to both sides and makes a decision.
Salt Lake County property owners filed 4,899 appeals in 2006. Of those, 2,719 assessments were reduced, although in some cases the value was raised, according to data from the Salt Lake County Tax Administration Office.
Last year, more than 1,000 people appealed their assessments in Utah County. However, the Utah County Clerk/Auditor's Office told the Deseret Morning News that the office doesn't keep a record of how many of the appeals are denied.
In Davis County, 920 of 1,418 appeals went through, though 350 of them were from one entity, Rawlings said.
So far, 150 property owners have filed appeals in Davis County this year, Ivie said. He expects to receive between 800 and 1,200 appeals this year.
"We're glad to lower their value if we can," Ivie said, because it doesn't affect the county's bottom line if homes are worth more or less in a given year.
However, one might think higher market values would make owners happy.
"It makes them happy if they're planning to sell," Ivie said. "It doesn't make people happy if they're on fixed income and retired."
Those people may not want or need the home to be worth more, he said.
"That's our tax system," he said, "based on market value."
Davis County residents who have questions about their tax bill can contact the Davis County Assessor's Office at 451-3250.
Salt Lake County residents can stop by the Salt Lake County Government Center's north building, 2001 S. State, to file walk-in appeals. Mail-in appeals will also be accepted. Visit www.slcotaxadmin.org for more information.
E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com;