In response to recent assessment-related litigation, and reports of inconsistencies in Pennsylvania’s property assessment system, the Pennsylvania Local Government Commission formed the Property Assessment Reform Task Force in 2016. One of the Task Force accomplishments was a guide titled “Pennsylvania Property Assessment: A Self-Evaluation Guide for County Officials.” This document was subsequently adopted as best practices by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, and the Assessors Association of Pennsylvania in 2018. The self-evaluation guide provides steps a county can follow when periodically reviewing the status of their assessments, and the importance of regularly doing so. The guide also provides suggested guidelines for completing a ratio study, recommended ratio standards, and suggested standards on the frequency that counties should perform reassessments, all of which follow the standards established by the IAAO.

A: The following 2 questions can help you decide if your assessment is correct.

Please note: If you are concerned that your taxes are going to double because your property value has doubled, that is not the case.

Since everyone else’s property value is also rising, the tax rate must drop proportionally to the amount of total increase to the County’s total value.

1) Can I sell my property for that amount?

The first thing that you should do is ask yourself if you could sell the property for approximately that amount.

2) Does the Assessment Office have the correct information on my property?

An online database will be available to you later in the project, where you will be able to review the information that the Assessment Office has collected on your property to make sure the data is accurate. You will also receive a data mailer that you can review and verify, and you will also be able to meet with a representative to review the property record when informal reviews commence.

While reviewing your property, you should make sure that all measurements on the sketch are accurate. Please note that all measurements are taken from the exterior. You should also check the land size and interior data to ensure accuracy.

A: The Perry reassessment team will develop property values in accordance with Pennsylvania’s Consolidated Assessment Law. Three approaches to value shall be considered, the Cost Approach, Comparable Sales Approach, and Income Approach. The price at which any property may actually have been sold shall be considered but shall not be controlling.

Land valuation will be accomplished through an analysis of vacant sales, as well as a land residual analysis, which is accomplished by deducting improvement values and extracting land values from improved sales. This analysis results in a base land curve. In each community, neighborhoods will be established that represent similar value patterns and neighborhood factors will be established.  Each neighborhood, street by street, will also be rated for desirability which provides a second factor that may be applied to the base square foot or acreage schedule to account for differences in location.  In addition, factors will be applied to account for negative or positive influences on value such as topography, view, irregular lot shape, waterfront and other factors.

Overall property values, including improvement value, will be verified by the sales ratio analysis, segregated by the pertinent value related factors of each property.  This analysis will be stratified within various categories including style of property, segmented by size and age, by lot size and location factors.  This analysis enables the Project Management team to fine-tune the final tables for each property to create a mirror image of market sales activity within the County.

For commercial/industrial properties, all three approaches to value will be employed.  For commercial/industrial properties that are basically non-income-producing, the secondary approach will be the market approach, utilizing the square foot values derived from the sales analysis for the particular use type of the property.  Square foot values will be segregated by type, including industrial, warehouse, retail, etc. and will provide reasonable ranges for per square foot sale prices of building areas.  Land value, once determined, will be added to building value for an estimate of total value.  For all income producing commercial property, the income approach, utilizing a direct capitalization approach, will be employed.

The replacement cost approach to value will be employed for both residential and commercial and industrial properties as follows:

Information derived from our cost analysis will provide the basis for determining the cost pricing schedules used in the valuation of residential and commercial/industrial properties.

Subsequent to the determination of replacement cost pricing schedules and the establishment of land values, the team will analyze the sales of improved properties in order to derive an estimate of physical and functional depreciation and economic obsolescence.

Physical and functional depreciation and economic obsolescence will be computed to be the difference between the selling price of the total property and the sum of the estimated replacement cost new of the improvement plus the estimated land value.

Provided that a sufficient number of sales are available, guidelines in the form of tables based upon the condition, desirability and usefulness of a building relative to its actual age will be developed. After approval by the Assessor, these tables will be used to estimate the depreciation of comparable subject properties.

All of these tables are then applied to each parcel in the County. Each property is then reviewed by an appraiser. During this review, the appraiser rechecks the physical data and then ensures that the value is consistent with the sales activity within the immediate area. This value then becomes the final proposed value and once accepted by the County becomes the final assessed value.

A: Yes. When preliminary value notices are mailed, property owners will be provided a telephone number that will put the owner in touch with a person who can answer questions about the notices. Property owners will also have the opportunity to schedule an informal review. Informal reviews will be conducted by qualified staff who can review property descriptions, make data corrections, and discuss valuation. All informal reviews must be completed before June 1, 2025. Descriptive changes to a property may alter the proposed market value.

All property owners will receive a Change of Assessment Notice on or shortly after July 1, 2025. The owners may file an appeal with the Board of Assessment Appeals. If they are not satisfied with the results of that hearing, an appeal may be made to the Court of Common Pleas. There will be many opportunities for property owners to provide input.

A: Absolutely not. Below we have listed sample models used for valuing residential buildings and residential building lots. Please be aware that our models are built to represent market conditions within a County and therefore they can vary between different Counties. Nevertheless, a typical building and land model are depicted below. All beginning costs are arrived at by performing an in depth study of the local market which is a process that includes one or more of the following steps- a complete review of recent County sales transactions, consultations with local builders, consultations with local realtors, an examination of transactions where new properties were built and sold as well as the use of nationally recognized building cost manuals.

Residential Building Valuation Model

Beginning Square foot price

+/- Physical characteristics (bedrooms, bathrooms, quality of construction, flooring, fireplace etc…)

= Adjusted cost per square foot

Adjusted cost per square foot x building square footage

– Building depreciation

= Building value

Land Valuation Model

Land units

x Unit price

x Land condition adjustment

x Location adjustment

= Land value

A: A reassessment is the process of performing all of the necessary Market Analysis and Valuation steps to determine accurate and equitable values for all properties within a county. The purpose of a reassessment is not to raise taxes. It is to create an equitable distribution of the tax burden.

A: Clean and Green – Pennsylvania Farmland and Forest Land Assessment Act 319 of 1974, (as amended) is a state law authorized by the Pennsylvania Constitution that allows qualifying land that is devoted to agricultural and forest land use to receive a preferential assessment. Property owners with land of 10 acres or more in size may qualify for the Clean and Green program. Land tracts of less than 10 acres in size and actively producing an agricultural commodity may also be eligible. The Clean and Green program provides a tax reduction by permitting a “use value” to be assessed to qualifying land instead of “market value.” Property owners may learn more about this program by visiting the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s website.

A: A physical inspection of the exterior of each property is conducted. While data collection is being conducted, appraisers are studying the recent market sales in order to gain a full understanding of the real estate market in your County. This study of recent property sales allows the appraisers to establish valuation models used to estimate the value of properties that have not sold using comparisons with recent sales. The valuation models are applied to all non-sale properties in order to approximate the market value of each property.

A: Refer to our Is My Assessment Correct? section.

A: Since the last reassessment, real estate values have changed significantly. Construction costs typically increase at a slower rate than property values have appreciated. When building costs have not increased as much as total values, the bulk of the total increase is attributable to land. This makes perfect economic sense, as it is land that is limited supply.

A: A revaluation may result in an increase or decrease of individual taxes depending on how a property value increased or decreased relative to the average change in the County’s assessments. It does not mean that all property taxes will increase or decrease. Remember assessments are only the base that is used to determine the tax burden. The tax burden is the amount that the municipality must raise to operate the local government and support the many services each of us has come to expect, such as schools, police, etc. As an example, if the same amount of money is to be raised after the revaluation as the previous year and each assessment doubles, the tax rate would merely be cut in half.

A: The value of your property is based on an analysis of the entire market for a specified period of time before the completion of the revaluation project. The market can generally be defined as, you, the person who sold the property to you, and the person willing to buy it from you. It is the appraiser’s job to research and analyze the values in any particular area or neighborhood. In effect, they do what you would do to determine the selling price when putting your property up for sale. However, the appraiser has specific guidelines to follow during their research. Some factors that are examined for each property are: location, size, quality of construction, age of improvements, topography, utilities, zoning restrictions, if any, etc.

A: Most likely, yes. However, not all property values will change at the same rate. Market value may have increased more for some neighborhoods and property types than for others. Some neighborhoods and property types may have decreased in value and others may have remained the same. One purpose of a revaluation is to make sure that the assessed values reflect the changes that have occurred in the real estate market.

A: Market value has been defined by the courts as, “The price in a competitive market a purchaser, willing but not obligated to buy, would pay an owner, willing but not obligated to sell, taking into consideration all the legal uses to which the property can be adapted and might be reasonably applied.” (See Buhl Found. v. Board of Prop. Assessment, 180 A.2d 900 (Pa. 1962).

The Market value represents the typical selling price for the property, unaffected by special or creative financing or sales concessions granted by anyone associated with a sale.

A: There are differences between individual properties and between neighborhoods. In one area, the sales may indicate a substantial increase in value in a given year. In another neighborhood, there may be a lesser change in property values.

Different types of properties within the same neighborhood may also show different value changes. For example, one – story houses may be more in demand than two – story houses or vice versa. Older homes in the same area may be rising in value more slowly than newer homes.

Among the numerous factors to be considered that will cause values to differ are location, condition, size, quality, number of baths, basement finish, garages, and many others.

A: No. If an inspection is necessary on your property, we have to analyze all of the information we gathered before placing a value on your property. We will then further review this information to ensure that your assessment corresponds fairly to the assessments of other properties.