A Primer on Assessments
The keystone of the property-tax system is the assessment: the portion of a property's market value that is subject to taxation.
The keystone of the property-tax system is the assessment: the portion of a property's market value that is subject to taxation.
In Pennsylvania, assessments are conducted by county evaluators. They estimate market value, defined by the state Supreme Court as the price that a willing buyer would pay a willing seller.
With the exception of Philadelphia, all properties in a county must be assessed in one sweep. Those assessments are supposed to equal the full market value at that time, in what is known as a "base year." They are frozen until the next reassessment.
For example: In Chester County, the base year is 1996, the year of the last countywide reassessment. If a house currently is assessed at $100,000, that means that by the county's reckoning, its market value in 1996 was $100,000. (Typically, a house with that assessment would be worth about $200,000 today.)
Montgomery County's base year also is 1996. Delaware County's is 1998. In Bucks, where the last reassessment occurred the year when George McGovern was the Democratic nominee for president, the base year is 1972.
As housing prices change over the years, the law permits each county to adjust the percentage of market value represented by the assessment, so long as the same percentage is applied to all properties. This is the "common level ratio."
For 2006, the most recent data year available, an assessment's percentage of market value was supposed to be 9.1 in Bucks County, 51.8 in Chester County, 61.1 in Delaware County, and 50.7 in Montgomery. Updated ratios will be released in July.
A homeowner who believes an assessment percentage is significantly above the county average may have a basis for appeal.
Counties, school districts and towns set the millage rates - the tax per $1,000 of assessed property value - based on their budget needs.
The result lands in your mailbox.
SOURCE: Pennsylvania Legislator's Municipal Deskbook; county assessment offices
