Denver (New Property Tax Assessments) - Sticker Shock?

[Matthew Schroeder]

Dear Denver Area Investors,

Anyone else receive their new property tax assessments for the Denver Metro Area and have sticker shock?

We have 4 investment properties in Denver/Aurora & the new assessments average a whopping 29% increase over the previous assessments!  In one case, it is up 61%!!!  As buy & hold investors who typically focus first on cash flow dynamics, that definitely eats into numbers.

Anyone else have a similar experience?  Any thoughts/comments?  Any view on whether it would be worthwhile to appeal, and if so, the best practices?

I would be interested to hear others' views/comments.

[Jean Bolger]

The former lower assessments were really just a product of the crash. If values had been increasing incrementally since 2008 it wouldn't feel like such a shock, but since they dipped down and then rushed back up  it sure does.
Overall, our property taxes are pretty darn reasonable here. And if your rents have been increasing proportionate to everyone else's I'd guess it's not going to hurt your numbers too much. I really don't think an appeal would be worth your while; by the time it was over you might just end up with a higher assessment, lol!

That said, if you're not super happy with your cash flow numbers on your Denver properties, it would be hard to find a better time to sell.