CLEVELAND — Pete Rivera has owned his home in Tremont for decades. From his porch, he’s watched property values climb as new houses and apartments rise on nearby streets.
“The neighborhood’s going up more and more and more. … The taxes are going up, up, up, too,” he said Monday.
Now Rivera, who is 73, is one of thousands of Northeast Ohio homeowners awaiting new property valuations – and bracing for potential tax hikes.
Cuyahoga County just started sending out letters about a mass reappraisal, a state-mandated process that takes place every six years. Across the county, home values are up by 32 percent, on average, from what's listed in the county's tax records today.
But property-tax bills will increase much less dramatically. Ohio uses a complicated formula to calculate taxes, which flow to schools and, in smaller amounts, local governments, libraries and other public entities.
“The valuation increase does not mean your taxes will go up by that same amount. It will go up by a fraction – if at all,” stressed Michael Chambers, Cuyahoga County’s fiscal officer.
Rivera, in a hot market, is likely to see a spike. Other homeowners will experience more modest tax increases or even decreases, depending on where they live.
In Cleveland, the average home value jumped by 49 percent, based on the county’s recent analysis. Homes with lower-than-average appreciation should end up with lower tax bills, Chambers said. Properties with higher-than-average appreciation will face higher tax bills next year.
Across the county, values increased the most in East Cleveland, an impoverished suburb that still hasn’t recovered from the Great Recession and 2008 housing bust. The county says the average home value there rose by 67 percent – from $31,200 to $52,300.
Hunting Valley, an affluent East Side village, saw the smallest change, at only 15 percent. But that’s a jump of more than $196,000 in value. The county says the typical home there is worth more than $1.5 million.
Those values aren’t firmly set since the county is still waiting for approval from the state. But the numbers aren’t likely to shift much.
And Chambers didn’t want to wait on state approval to get the word out to homeowners – and give them early opportunities to push back.
“If you don’t agree with that value or you can’t sell your home for that value, I would like to know why,” he said. “If you can sell it for more than that, good. You don’t have to tell me. But the bottom line is I want to be fair to you, the taxpayer.”
The county will accept informal appeals through Aug. 30. Homeowners can mail in paperwork, drop off documents at the county administration building downtown or submit their appeals online.
Taxpayers can learn more about the process at community meetings in Cleveland, Highland Hills and Parma in late July and early August.
Chambers said officials will respond to informal appeals in November or December.
A formal appeals process through the Cuyahoga County Board of Revision will kick off in January. The county expects to receive tens of thousands of appeals.
Homeowners won’t receive their new property tax bills in the mail until early January. But they can get a sense of what they’ll owe by using a calculator on the county’s website. That tool does not account for school levies and other tax increases on November’s ballot, though.
For example, a Cleveland homeowner whose property value jumps from $68,100 to $101,000 could see a tax hike of about $300, according to the calculator. But that does not reflect a proposed 8.6-mill operating levy for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
Six other nearby counties – Erie, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Portage and Stark – are wrapping up a similar reappraisal process. And property values are climbing across the state, fueled by a tight housing market where buyer demand still far exceeds supply.
“During Covid, we saw that we had massive sales and … no-inspection, cash offers, things like that going on,” Chambers said. “That has slowed, but the prices have not gone down. They continue to rise. So, it’s continuing out of control, in all honesty. This is pretty high-impact for our residents.”
State legislators have proposed a slew of bills to blunt the impact of rising property taxes, particularly for older homeowners like Rivera. But nothing significant has made it through the General Assembly.
Chambers and Brad Cromes, the Cuyahoga County treasurer, said they’re working on a tax relief proposal for elderly homeowners.
The program would provide cash to eligible households to pay current and delinquent taxes. And it would carry a much higher income limit than the state’s homestead exemption, a tax break for very low-income seniors.
“I don’t want to get too far into it,” Chambers said, noting that the proposal will need approval by Cuyahoga County Council. “We have a long way to go with that. But that will be coming more in the fall. And we think that, since the state’s not taking any steps, Cuyahoga County will.”
For now, he encouraged eligible homeowners to make sure they’re taking advantage of the homestead exemption and the owner-occupancy credit for a primary residence.
A decade ago, Rivera’s property tax bill was less than $1,600 a year. Today, it’s more than $4,200. And he’s expecting another increase.
“I’m retired. I’m a senior citizen. Sometimes it’s hard to come up with,” he said of the tax payment on his home, a duplex he and his wife share with a son, a daughter-in-law and a grandson.
He just paid his taxes for the second half of 2023, a bill that was due by mid-July.
“We manage every year,” Rivera said, “but it’s hard.”
Real estate websites like Zillow and Redfin put the estimated value of his property at $250,000 to $300,000. That’s five to six times what he and his wife paid in 2000 when they bought the house from a relative.
But Rivera has no interest in cashing out and leaving his quiet pocket of the city.
“No, no,” he said. “I’m happy where I’m at.”
