Reassessment of property values in Lackawanna County, PA

[Sylvia Castellanos]

This is very region-specific, and probably will not be of interest to anyone outside Lackwanna County, PA.

I own five vacant lots there. I bought several of them when I was only starting to invest in land, and made unwise choice I would not make today. Yesterday I received five letters, one for each lot, telling me that properties were being reassessed, with new amounts going into effect in 2026. Their proposed reassessments ranged from $13,000 for a lot that turned out to be a rainwater management basin and will never be buildable, to $70,000 for a lot that is 3,000 square feet short of qualifying for septic, and therefore is also unbuildable. In between there are two lots which are okay and they want to assess at $55,000. The problem is that the lots of that size and in that locations which are recently sold have been bought for between $17,000 - $20,000. The notices say I can appeal and bring documents that include recent comps, so I will certainly do that.

The reason I am writing this is to ask if there are other land investors or realtors who have dealt with this function of Lackawanna County before, and if there are insights they can give me.