online on Monday, many Philadelphia property owners have reacted with shock or skepticism about their valuations.
But James Aros Jr., who has led the office since February 2021, spoke with The Inquirer to help answer some frequently asked questions stemming from the reassessments.There are several industry-accepted appraisal methods, and for single-family and small multi-unit properties the OPA used the sales comparison approach, in which recent nearby property sales are the primary factor in determining assessed values, Aros said.
The first thing to understand about the reassessment is that the city started from scratch instead of updating its old valuations. And this time around, the OPA applied an appraisal industry rule of thumb known as an 80/20 split for determining the value of land under single-family homes and small multi-unit buildings.
Aros said that the reason for the change to an across-the-board 80/20 split was that the city’s previous approach — a sliding scale based on the building conditions — was confusing for many homeowners. But Aros said that if owners are confident their valuations are too high compared to their neighbors’, they should appeal their assessments with the Board of Revision of Taxes. The deadline to file an appeal is Oct. 3.Overall, Aros said that the reassessment has passed muster with statistical tests of its accuracy, and that he believes it is an improvement over the values assigned three years ago.