Huge wave of Arapahoe, Douglas homeowners scrambling to dispute property values

BY NINA JOSS AND ELLIS ARNOLD COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

In much of the south Denver metro area, the disputes that property owners led with their county o cials over whether their property values should be lowered for tax purposes has outstripped recent years by thousands of lings.

Douglas County property owners led disputes, or appeals, for about 20% of the properties that received new property values this year — the highest percentage of appeals in recent history for the county, according to Toby Damisch, who heads Douglas County’s property valuation o ce.

“And I don’t expect for this to ever happen again,” said Damisch, the county assessor, adding: “It’s a complete anomaly.” e numbers mean many homeowners face a double-digit percentage increase in their property tax bill for next year.

In appeals, owners argue their property value should be lower — and tens of thousands in the south Denver suburbs have taken that step. Driven by a costly real-estate market, home values have spiked since the last time homeowners received notices of value two years ago. In Douglas County, residential properties saw increases in value between 30% and 60%, with a median of 47%.

Arapahoe County saw almost a 42% increase in residential values, according to County Assessor PK Kaiser.

Property taxes partly fund county governments, but they also fund school districts, re and library dis- tricts, and other local entities. e property valuation homeowners received around early May is based on data as of June 2022, near the recent peak in the realestate market.

Even though home prices have declined since then, property values from the assessor’s o ce re ect last year’s exceptional highs.

“People are very, very worried about their property taxes next year because of what the values have done,” said Corbin Sakdol, director of the Colorado Assessors’ Association.

Skyrocketing appeal rates

In Arapahoe County, about 13% of the properties that received a new value this year have had their value appealed, according to Kaiser’s o ce’s count in mid-June. In raw numbers, that’s about 29,000 appeals — and counting, Kaiser’s o ce said on June 16.

Over in Douglas County, the appeal rate is much higher than usual, Damisch said.

“We typically expect 5% of properties to appeal,” though that