‘This isn’t fair;’ Property values increase in many Miami Valley counties

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — Across the Miami Valley, property values have been on the rise.

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That means homeowners will have to pay more in taxes, but a lawmaker in the area is working on a plan to help the homeowners with their increased expenses.

News Center 7 Brandon Lewis spoke with homeowners in Montgomery County on how they feel about this increase.

The Montgomery County Auditor said 96% of residential property values increased this year.

Mike McDonald, a Linden Heights neighborhood resident, said he still remembers when he moved into his house.

“1977, a long time, a long time,” McDonald said.

Earlier this year, McDonald got a letter in the mail from the county auditor that showed the value of his home jumped from $83,000 to more than $126,000.

This increase follows Montgomery County’s Triennial Market Update.

“I’m gonna have to pay more in taxes. I, myself, and like a lot of these people around here and in the city are on a fixed income. This isn’t fair,” McDonald said.

The Montgomery County Auditor’s Office said the average increase in residential property values was 34% this year.

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“We introduced a bill to try and ease that sticker shock increase that people are seeing with their home valuations, skyrocketing as we speak,” U.S. Representative Thomas Hall said.

State Representative Hall is pushing a plan that would require the tax commissioner to work with local elected officials to evaluate the past three years of a county’s property values, instead of just one, to help determine property tax.

“This is not a long-term fix. We have realized through this process, how complicated and how far behind Ohio is in regard to property taxes. So, we’ve established a property tax study committee to develop long-term solutions to property taxes here in the state of Ohio,” Hall said.

However, the County Auditors Association of Ohio and the County Treasurers Association of Ohio have concerns.

Both associations released a statement saying in part, that the timing for passage of the bill would wreak havoc on timely certification.

It would also require counties that have already finalized amounts to redo those numbers, which would cause tax amounts to be different for the first and second half of 2024.

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“Any relief is helpful. I got to buy groceries, which we know has gone up, got to buy gasoline, which has increased, clothing and everything else has gone up,” McDonald said.

Rep. Hall’s plan passed in the Ohio House last week and will now move to the Senate.

He said he is not sure what the Senate will do with his plan.

The state county auditors and treasurer organizations call these plans a band-aid approach.

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