For any property owner living on a fixed income, a Reevaluation can be frightening.  SWCAA reached out to one of our regional tax assessors to provide additional context on the potential Property Tax increase. 

A revaluation in Connecticut is mandated by state statute and required every five years.

It is not done during high or low market conditions or when a town desires but rather assigned time by the state. So we do not choose a time.

The main purpose for a real estate revaluation is to update property assessments to reflect current market conditions and that all property owners pay their fair share of taxes based on it true worth as of that date.  Regardless if it falls during a high market or low market year most taxpayers would only see an increase in their taxes based on budget increase and mill rate increase.

Example,  If a property had an assessment of 700,000 and the new market assessment went up 20% or 140,000. Assuming we had a mill rate of 10 mills and budget called for a flat (0) increase in spending the mill would need to drop to 8 mills since the budget or town did not call for an increase in spending.  That  taxpayer would not see an increase in taxes regardless if their property assessment went up 20%. The same would be true if the assessed value went down the mill would go up to 12 mills. Those that could get affected are those that their assessed value went up more than 20% due to market changes in that area, renovations, new construction, clerical errors or undervalued due to errors.

The key goal is to equalize the tax burden across all properties based on current market condition and changes.