Property Taxes Too High? Here’s How to Lower Your Bill

Over the last several decades, homeowners have gotten used to paying roughly the same property tax bill every year. An occasional increase wasn’t unheard of, but if your taxes did go up, it was usually pretty insignificant — around 0.5% to 1% on average.

Imagine, then, the sheer panic Chicago resident Darryl Lloyd felt when he opened his 2024 property tax bill and found it had skyrocketed from $1,800 to more than $30,000 — an increase of about 1,500% — in a single year.

Frantic, Lloyd contacted his local tax assessor’s office, which brushed off his concern, according to Fox 32 Chicago. Eventually, the office admitted the bill was based on an incorrect property assessment, which valued his 960-square-foot, three-bedroom, one-bath home at over $1 million. And during the search, the city found an additional 4,400 properties that had also been miscalculated, the network says.

Nationwide, property taxes increased by about 26% between 2019 and 2023, according to data analytics firm CoreLogic, largely thanks to skyrocketing home values during the pandemic. Still, data from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation shows that between 30% and 60% of all taxable property in the U.S. is over-assessed. Worse yet: Only 5% of homeowners challenge the bill, the foundation says.

Most U.S. counties have an on-staff property value administrator (PVA), an elected official who’s responsible for assessing nearly every piece of property within his or her municipality. But this is a massive task, and according to Colton Pace, CEO of Ownwell, a start-up specializing in helping homeowners reduce and appeal their property tax bills, its own the vast majority of tax offices rely on computer-generated algorithms to complete. And if the algorithm makes a mistake, it’s up to the property owner to fix it.

Here's how to check the math:

Step one: A few months before your tax bill arrives, you should receive an auto-generated property assessment in the mail. (The exact date for both of these notices varies widely by state.) Make sure every physical detail on that document — the square footage, number of bedrooms and age of your house, etc. — is accurate.

Step two: The assessment should also include an approximate value for your home. Was there a significant increase? Does it seem too high? How does it compare with other properties nearby? If you’re unsure, look up the assessed values of your neighbors’ homes online or in person at your county clerk or tax assessor’s office.

Step three: Now it’s time to make sure you’ve received all the tax exemptions you’re entitled to. Most jurisdictions give at least one exemption to every homeowner living there, provided the home is their primary address, but that’s not the only potential write-off. If you’re a senior or a veteran, or have recently made renovations to your home, you may qualify for additional exemptions.

Step four: If you catch any mistakes, find that you aren’t getting a tax reduction you’re entitled to or simply believe the assessment is too high, it’s time to file an appeal. (Pace says some jurisdictions call this a “challenge,” a “protest,” a “grievance” or a “petition.”) Depending on where you live, you’ll have between 30 and 60 days to file, so it’s important to know your deadline and appeal within that time frame. Otherwise, you’ll have no choice but to pay the bill that inevitably arrives.

If you decide to challenge the assessment, prepare to plead your case before an appeals board. Gather all the supporting documentation you can (comparative market analyses, home renovation invoices, etc), and ask a local tax expert to give you the rundown on what to expect at the hearing.

There are companies, like Pace’s, dedicated to finding exemptions, verifying the accuracy of tax assessments, and representing homeowners who aren’t comfortable going to a hearing alone. Whichever route you choose, you’ll need to be proactive—the window of opportunity is usually pretty short.