One Franklin homeowner was shocked to see the value of her home increase by nearly $10,000.
And a downtown Franklin business owner is questioning how the value of the land his coin shop of 40 years sits on could have increased more than $40,000 in one year.
The county recently updated the values of properties across the county, and about half of properties increased in value. For homeowners, half of properties increased in value, while just over a third stayed the same. But for farmers, more than 80 percent of properties fell in value, thanks to a new, lower base value per acre set by state lawmakers.
Deb Pahl is concerned about how much more the value of her Franklin home could go up — even without her making any changes to her property, she said. In 2013, the home was valued at $106,900, and for next year, the county has raised it to $125,300, nearly $10,000 more than this year’s value, she said.
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Tom Morrison, who owns the Franklin Coin Shop on Jefferson Street, is raising questions about how the value of the land his business sits on could increase from $9,900 this year to $51,000 for next year.
“I am kind of baffled because I have been here 40 years, and now it went up 5 times,” he said.
Property values can increase for multiple reasons, assessor Mark Alexander said.
For homes, the biggest reason is an increase in the sales price of similar homes, he said. And in recent years, more properties — especially homes — are selling, and they are fetching a higher price, he said.
For example, in July, the average sales price in Johnson County was $189,086, which was 9 percent higher than the same time last year, according to a report by Indianapolis real estate agency F.C. Tucker Co.
“It’s good that the market has rebounded and people are looking at higher values. But in my line of work, in taxes, it is good and bad,” he said.
Another reason for changes in values next year is that the county recently finished a reassessment of Franklin properties, he said. The state required all counties to do an overall reassessment of all properties but allowed them to break it into phases.
Johnson County’s reassessment is broken into four phases based on school districts. Last year was Clark-Pleasant and Greenwood schools, and this year was Franklin schools, Alexander said.
That reassessment did impact the value of businesses in downtown Franklin, such as Morrison’s coin shop, because the county updated the way it values those properties to better reflect market value, Alexander said. Instead of valuing a property by square footage, the county based on the value of the overall site, he said.
And in most cases, the value went up, he said.
Just because the value of your property went up doesn’t mean your tax bill will, too. But that value is one of the key factors used to calculate tax bills, along with the spending by local governments.
You won’t know how much next year’s bill will be until the spring.
The county sent a notice of any changes in property values to taxpayers about a week ago. And if you disagree with the amount the county set, you have until Oct. 17 to let the county know, Alexander said. If you wait until after that date, any changes made would not apply to next year’s tax bills.
