The economic health of Jefferson County is good, if the results of a recent reassessment of real estate and personal property is any indication.
Jefferson County Assessor Bob Boyer said his office’s work over the last few months shows that real estate in the county has increased in value by 10.5 percent over the last two years.
“That shows Jefferson County is growing,” Boyer said.
The assessed valuation of the county – the total of all real estate in the county’s 664 square miles – is $3.91 billion this year.
While the ongoing trend in the real estate market – in which many homes are selling for more than the advertised price – is powering some of that increase, other factors are at work.
“We’re seeing that the number of people moving from the city and St. Louis County to Jefferson County is on the rise, mainly to get away from the crime and the draconian health orders,” Boyer said. “People are choosing to come here to work and raise their families.”
Boyer said 13,421 deeds to property were transferred in 2020, and at the midpoint of 2021, another 5,843 sales were recorded, up 6 percent from the midpoint in 2020.
Boyer said another good omen is that so far during 2021, 602 newly constructed homes were added to the assessment rolls, up 16 percent from the same time in 2020.
“Jefferson County is growing, and not just in the northern part,” Boyer said. “We’re seeing new housing starts in the Hillsboro area, along the I-55 corridor and also on the west side of the county.”
Boyer acknowledged that growth is not necessarily welcomed by everyone.
“I still think growth is a positive thing,” he said. “If you’re able to spread the tax obligation out to more people, that’s what you want to do. It’s a good thing for everybody.”
Personal property
Concerning the reassessment of personal property – mostly vehicles – Boyer’s office reported a 12.7 percent increase, but he said he believes that uptick may be a product of the pandemic.
“I think we can all agree that 2020 was not a typical year,” he said. “There was COVID, of course, and the stimulus payments and interest rates were cut.
“While some people used those stimulus payments to meet their expenses, many people went out and made down payments on vehicles – and some with a higher price tag than they normally were in the market for.
“Sales of sports cars were up considerably, and a lot of people bought trucks, campers and SUVs,” Boyer said.
Boyer said the state requires county assessors to set the value of vehicles according to the National Automobile Dealers Association’s (NADA) October Trade-In Value Guide.
“We’re bound to follow the numbers that NADA gives us, and we checked with other counties in the area – St. Louis County, Franklin County and St. Charles County – and they’re all seeing the same thing.”
Boyer said typically, vehicle values depreciate over time, but the market over the last year – which also has driven up the prices for many used cars – has created what he sees as an anomaly.
“There will be some people, especially those with the higher-end autos and trucks and recreation vehicles – who may see increases in the property taxes when the bills are sent out later this year – but most people will not. Their vehicles will depreciate over time as they always have.”
State law guards against tax windfall
That leads to the message that Boyer wants to stress.
“Just because the assessed valuation has gone up, that doesn’t mean your taxes will. People will see that the county’s assessed valuation is up 10.5 percent and assume that their taxes will go up by the same amount. That’s not how it works.
“First off, the Assessor’s Office does not set the tax rates. Your school district, your fire protection district and all the other taxing districts do. By law, all the Assessor’s Office does is fix the value of taxable property.
“When the districts set their tax rates for 2021, they can’t bring in a windfall of taxes over the previous year. They plug their numbers into a formula the state uses and, by the Hancock Amendment, can’t bring in more than the Consumer Price Index for the year allows them to.
“But if you’re concerned about how your tax money is being spent, pay attention to how your school district, your fire district, your ambulance district, is spending it.
“Our job is to set a value to your property that is fair,” he said.
He said he believes his office is doing just that. He said his office, by law, sent out notices to 90,000 real estate owners that the assessed valuation of their land had increased over the last two years by at least $1.
He said only 125 of those owners appealed their appraisal to the county’s Board of Equalization.
“Most of those were filed by professional tax appeal companies on behalf of commercial chains, who file appeals everywhere they can in an effort to reduce a line item on their clients’ budget,” he said.
Boyer said only about a dozen of those 125 were filed by homeowners, and that, with the majority of the 125 appeals already heard, only three have resulted in an adjustment in the assessed valuation.
“Compare that to St. Louis County, which hears thousands of appeals that take months to get heard,” he said. “We try to appraise conservatively and fairly.”
For more information, call the Assessor’s Office at 636-797-5466 or send an email to reassessor@jeffcomo.org.
