PHILADELPHIA, PA – Using publicly available data, the Office of City Controller created and released an interactive map to show the assessment changes for Philadelphia’s residential properties for Tax Year 2023. The reassessment, the first since 2019, resulted in a median increase in assessed value of 31% for residential properties classified as single-family homes. However, at an individual property level, many property assessments have doubled or even tripled.
“We hope that this map will be used as a tool by City Council and residents alike to understand trends in assessed value changes and bring much needed transparency to the reassessment process,” said City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart. “Philadelphians deserve an accurate, predictable, and transparent property assessment system and a fair taxation system.”
The heat map shows each property colored according to the percent change in the assessment from last year’s value (Tax Year 2022) to this year’s value (Tax Year 2023). Of the approximately 450,000 single-family residential properties, we noted the following:
107,594 property assessments increased by 50% or more;
30,814 property assessments increased by 100% or more;
6,227 property assessments increased by 200% or more; and
3,580 property assessments increased by 300% or more.
The initial review conducted by the Controller’s Office noted that the largest percent increases are concentrated in parts of North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, and South Philadelphia. Additionally, the initial review suggests inconsistencies in land valuation, identifying 4,200 properties, including 3,300 residential properties, with land valuations of $0.
“When we looked at property assessments in 2019, we found that our poorest neighborhoods had the worst assessments – our most vulnerable residents were paying more than their fair share of property taxes, compared to wealthier neighborhoods. At this point, the Office of Property Assessment has not released its methodology or data to show these earlier issues were addressed. While it is possible that there are large increases in assessed values for Tax Year 2023, it is unlikely that the market changes over the last three years alone account for the doubling of assessed values in certain parts of the city. Couple that with the opaque process and inconsistencies in land valuation and one thing is clear: the reassessment process needs to be better.”
The Controller’s Office previously reviewed the property assessment process in its report “The Accuracy and Fairness of Philadelphia’s Property Assessments,” after the median assessment for single-family, residential properties increased by 10.5% for Tax Year 2019.
The City of Philadelphia released updated assessed values for all properties in the city on May 9, 2022.
Link to Map: https://controller.phila.gov/philadelphia-audits/tax-year-2023-assessment-changes/
