Kansas City MO. Property Tax Rate

[Christopher Throop]

I've been looking at properties in Kansas City lately and I've seen "estimated" property taxes from sellers that vary widely--even for properties with about the same value.  Can anyone tell me how property taxes are calculated in KC?

[Chris Dawson]

@Christopher Throop taxes are calculated differently based on the county.  Jackson County, MO is the biggest county serving the Kansas City area.  You can follow this link to see how they calculate your property taxes: http://www.jacksongov.org/content/3310/3324/4257/d...

Basically it comes down to somebody's "opinion" of value.  Whenever there is significant property value changes, such as what happened back in 2009-2013, there tends to be a lot of backlash about property taxes (because they city will only reassess the value every few years).  There is, however, a procedure for contesting your property tax amount which involves proving (via sold comps) that your house is worth less than what the county says it is.  This process has to be done by Aug. to have your taxes reduced by the end of the year.

Now that home prices have been steadily increasing for several years, some of the tax amounts are actually less than they should be.  Of course, nobody is going to call their county office and tell them that!

I hope this helps!