By Adam Allington, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – City of St. Louis property re-assessments will be mailed out Friday. State law requires real estate to be reassessed every two years to reflect changes in market value.
City Assessor Ed Bushmeyer says residential property values are up an average of 22.7% over the last reassessment cycle. That means most property owners will owe more money in taxes at the end of the year.
Bushmeyer says while higher taxes may not seem like a good thing, it's actually a positive sign.
"It may not feel like such a good thing if that results in a higher tax bill in November, but what it does mean is that people that have invested in homes in the city of St. Louis-those investments are secure," Bushmeyer said Thursday.
Bushmeyer says property values in St. Louis have increased substantially over the last decade. He says this latest increase should be the last big hike for the next few cycles.
Most neighboring counties started sending out notices last week and have already received a flood of phone calls from property owners.
Phil Muehlheausler, the assessor for St. Louis County, says the average property value increase was based on a statistically analysis of roughly 45,000 residential sales.
"The fee appraiser, the one that you would pay to go out and have your property appraised would maybe spend two or three hours walking through your home and picking comparable sales, whereas we're using a mass appraisal system," noted Muelheausler
According to the state tax commission, property values in the county are up an average of 20% over two years ago. Muehlheausler says property values should flatten out for the next several assessment cycles.