Eagle County property valuation notices are in the mail

The Eagle County Assessor’s office this week mailed notices of assessed value to all property owners in the county. The notices, mailed every two years, won’t be as shocking as those mailed in 2023.

Eagle County Assessor Mark Chapin said the median increase in value from two years ago is 8% for residential property, with a median increase of 5% for commercial property. The actual increases vary by location.

The assessment notices are calculated every two years. The process, conducted uniformly in all 64 Colorado counties, sets values as of June 30 of the previous year based on sales data of comparable properties. For this reappraisal, the data covered the period between June 30, 2022, through the same date in 2024.

Based on the reappraisal, taxes are levied for the 2025 tax year, with those taxes payable in 2026. Those taxes are established by the roughly 90 taxing entities in the county, ranging from school districts to cemetery districts.

Mailing the notices of value opens a six-week appeals period that runs into June.

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The massive run-up in real estate values triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic also triggered a flood of appeals, with 7,009 people challenging their property values. The volume of appeals required Chapin to close his office to the public through much of June through July 5. More than 4,800 of those appeals were denied.

Chapin said the number of 2023 appeals wasn’t the record for challenges. That came in 2009. That year, the median value grew by 50% or more before a nationwide recession caused a real estate slump. More than 9,000 people challenged their values that year.

Chapin said this year’s values seem to reflect a more normal market. But, he added, the median home price reflected in his office’s data is now roughly $1.6 million. And, as is usually the case in Eagle County, there’s still “high demand and low supply,” he said.

While Chapin reiterated that his office doesn’t set tax rates, he said there’s a complicating factor coming this year regarding those rates.

The Colorado Legislature last year passed a bill that splits the tax assessment rate for residential property, granting a higher rate to school districts. But that rate won’t be finalized until August, when state’s total assessed value is set.