What can Stark County homeowners expect from next year's reappraisal?

With Franklin and Summit counties seeing record-setting increases in home values during this year's reappraisal, Stark County homeowners may want to know if they will experience something similar when the county undergoes the process next year.

Home values in Franklin are rising by an average of 41%, while Summit homeowners are seeing a 34% average increase. The significant jumps are worrisome for homeowners because their property values are tied to how much they pay in property taxes.

Stark County Auditor Alan Harold said the drastic increase in prices and sales volume that occurred in 2020 can help explain why other counties are seeing large bumps this year. The large price increases that happened three years ago weren't a significant factor in the 2020 reassessment.

Stark conducted its most recent reassessment in 2021, which means the rapidly rising market was at least partially accounted for. This could help temper increases in 2024, Harold said.

Stark saw the median assessed value of single-family homes jump by more than 17% in 2021, thanks to higher sale prices. Canal Fulton and Wilmot led the way with 30% increases.

The price of a single-family home has risen on average about 15% since the last countywide reassessment, Harold said. Realtor.com reports that the average sale price for a home last month in Stark was $205,000.

Harold said a full year remains until the county auditor's office will finish its analysis. The office will continue to follow the market as it finalizes its work.

Why will there be a reappraisal in Stark County?

Ohio law requires county auditors to do a full reappraisal every six years, and property values are updated in the third year. The auditor's office submits a plan to the state's Department of Taxation the year before the reappraisal explaining how it intends to handle the inspections and analysis of the properties in the county.

Once that is accepted, the office conducts the necessary inspection and analytical work, which concludes in May or June of the reappraisal year. Then it's sent to the state for approval. In early August 2024, the office will likely notify property owners about what they think their new property values will be.

From there, there will be public outreach and time for property owners to submit evidence or other documentation if they believe their property value should be different.

The new values determine the portion that individual property owners and entire communities pay to fund school districts, libraries, drug addiction and mental health programs, parks and local governments.

What does the real estate market look like in Stark County?

Kyle Oberlin, president of Stark Trumbull Area Realtors, said home values in the region are remaining steady in a market with low inventory.

"From 2020 to 2022, you saw home values skyrocketing because the cost of purchasing was so low," he said. "Rates were at probably the lowest they have ever been and will ever be again. And so you saw a lot of market activity. You saw people that were selling, buying, and a lot of saturation in all the local markets."

Oberlin said there was an uptick in out-of-state real estate investment as a result of the low cost of capital over the last several years. Coupled with high interest rates, this created "a different inventory situation, where you have a lot of sellers that refinanced or just recently purchased at a crazy low rate, and now they don't want to move."

He said he doesn't see the low inventory problem going away any time soon.

"Ultimately, you have to build your way out of that," Oberlin said. "Also, for a good part of COVID, you didn't see much construction because of just the logistics issues that were going on and supply-chain (issues), and the cost of building went up."

More inventory could become available if interest rates dip, he said, but no economic indicators suggest that prices will decrease.

Reach Paige at 330-580-8577, pmbennett@gannett.com or on Twitter @paigembenn.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Reappraisal 2024: What to expect for home values in Stark County