YOUNGSTOWN — County Auditor Ralph Meacham is noting a statewide increase in housing market values in further explaining the average increase in Mahoning County, as a result of the tentative 2023 tax-year reappraisal.

Meacham a week ago released the tentative market values for the tax year 2023 reappraisal, and residential property owners will see a countywide average increase in value of 38%.

“For the last several years, the housing market values steadily increased not just in Mahoning County, but statewide,” Meacham said.

According to the Ohio Department of Taxation, 41 of Ohio’s 88 counties are undergoing either a reappraisal or triennial update for tax year 2023.

The Ohio Department of Taxation recommends a ratio for market value to sale price, also known as a sales ratio, of approximately 91%. The sale prices are actual sales of homes in Ohio during the year.

As sale prices increased in 2021 and 2022, the sales ratio dropped as low as 68%. A reappraisal brings the sales ratio closer to the state recommendations, Meacham explained in a news release Friday.

In Mahoning County, as a result of the tentative reappraisal, Youngstown homeowners will see an average residential increase of 58%, Boardman and Austintown will see about 42%, while some of the rural townships will see ranges of 20% to 30%.

LESS INVENTORY AND SALES

The Youngstown Columbiana Association of Realtors reports a decrease each year in the number of newly listed properties for 2021, 2022 and 2023. That lower inventory combined with historically low interest rates drove the increased sale prices recorded throughout Ohio.

Meacham said he also wants to make the public aware that taxpayers who received the Homestead Exemption and whose value was under $25,000 prior to the reappraisal, only paid special assessments. However, if their new value goes above $25,000, they may owe property taxes as well.

“House Bill 920, which was enacted in 1976, requires that tax rates be adjusted so that taxing authorities such as schools, townships, and cities do not collect more money than what voters approved at the ballot,” Meacham explained, adding that “…your percentage of value increase does not necessarily correspond to an equal percentage of increase in property taxes.”

Levies approved in the November 2023 election will be adjusted for the 2023 values for taxes payable in 2024. Actual taxes due in 2024 cannot be calculated until the effective tax rates are calculated by the Ohio Department of Taxation in December.

Meacham will host informal review sessions in October, and if warranted in November, for those taxpayers who wish to speak to an appraiser regarding their new tentative value. Taxpayers can schedule one of these sessions through the auditor’s website or by calling the reappraisal hotline. The sessions can be done as a virtual meeting or a phone call.

The tentative values will be finalized in December and effective tax rates issued. Property tax amounts will be available mid-January 2024.

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