Property assessments have arrived in Boise area — and they’re down significantly

Ada County property assessments will decrease, on average, this year for the first time since 2012.

After some unprecedented years of up to 30% increases in property values in Ada County, the market has slowed. This year, most Ada County residents will see a decrease in their property assessments, according to the Ada County Assessor’s Office.

Brad Smith, Ada County chief deputy assessor, said on average residential property assessments decreased by 14.6% from last year. The median decrease was 16.2%, meaning half the residential parcels will be decreasing more than 16.2% and the other half will not be decreasing as much, Smith said, in an email. There are some properties where the assessed values did increase this year, Smith said.

This year also marks the first time since 2011 that some of the property tax burden will shift from homeowners to commercial properties. The property tax burden is shared each year by homeowners and commercial property owners, with homeowners’ share increasing in recent years. The past several years saw large property value increases in residential properties and slower increases in commercial properties.

That changed this year.

“This change of course for 2023 trend is caused by residential values decreasing while commercial values are increasing,” Smith said in an email.

Still, homeowners are expected to absorb 74.3% of the property tax burden in 2023. That number was 62.1% in 2012, according to assessor’s office data.

Property assessments are based on market activity.

“We are simply responding to/translating market participants’ behavior,” Smith said.

The housing market slowed in Ada County between mid-2022 and Jan. 1, 2023, Smith said, and commercial activity did not.

To determine assessments, the county assessor’s office looks at median home sales prices in an area, such as the Boise Bench, and then applies those percentages to all homes in that area.

Individual homeowners can expect to see their property assessments in the mail after the first week of June. However, they can look them up now at adacounty.id.gov/assessor.

Homeowners won’t know their property tax bills until taxing districts, like cities, counties and school districts, set their budgets, which usually happens in August.

Local taxing jurisdictions are limited by state law in how much they can raise taxes each year. Any taxing district can reduce its levy rates — the percentage of a property’s value that the particular local government will collect — to offset the assessment increase on residential property.

In Boise’s proposed budget, city officials plan to increase taxes by 2%, rather than the allowable 3%. The Idaho Statesman previously reported that the city budget would result in an 8.7% reduction in property taxes for the average homeowner, or about $138 in savings, according to budget director Eric Bilimoria. That took into account the expected dip in assessed values.

For a breakdown on how much assessments changed this year by neighborhood, visit the Ada County Assessor’s data dashboard on the county website.