Muskingum County residents baffled by recent property value spike
October 15, 2018
Property values across Muskingum County have seen a significant increase at the conclusion of the county’s six-year reevaluation.
According to Muskingum County Auditor Debra Nye, the average property owner saw a 16.2 percent increase in value this year.
Residents in Muskingum County are baffled by the numbers, some seeing their property values jump by as much as $100,000.
Kelley Komaromy, who lives just south of Philo, said the value of her property went from $236,540 to $309,600 after the reassessment, an increase of about 23.5 percent.
Her daughter’s property in Duncan Falls jumped even higher.
“I think this is a huge increase,” said Komaromy. “My daughter’s increased almost $100,000. How can that even be?”
During the first informal hearing of six throughout the county, a steady stream of residents from the Duncan Falls area flowed in and out of the Masonic Lodge on Mound Street Friday, many leaving unsatisfied.
- Friday, Oct. 12- Anchor Lodge #283 F. AM. Masonic Lodge, Mound Street, Duncan Falls
- Monday, Oct. 15- Meadow View Church of Christ 6750, Raiders Road, Frazeysburg
- Tuesday, Oct. 16- Newton Township Fire Department, 5490 Maysville Pike, Zanesville
- Wednesday, Oct. 17- New Concord Village Hall (basement), 2 West Main Street, New Concord
- Thursday, Oct. 18- Adamsville Community Building, 8200 Madison Street, Adamsville
- Friday, Oct. 19- Muskingum County Center for Seniors, 160 N. 4th Street, Zanesville
Davide Greenhill, who lives on Old River Road, said his property value went from $103,000 to $132,000.
When he asked what that means for his taxes, Greenhill said a representative from Appraisal Research Company estimated it would cost him about $1,000 more per year.
“That’s our government for you,” said Greenhill.
Several property owners who attended the informal hearing throughout the afternoon mentioned their property values going up between 28 percent and 33 percent.
A retired man from Duncan Falls said he lives on a fixed income and may be forced to sell his home if he can’t get the value adjusted for taxation purposes.
Another man said his five rental properties went up a total of $120,000, something he’ll have pass on to his renters in order to afford the taxes.
When asked about why values jumped so high, Nye attributed the countywide inflation to demands from the State of Ohio.
According to Nye, her office submitted property values to the Ohio Department of Taxation twice since June and was rejected each time.
The reason for the rejection, Nye said, was because the state demanded the values be increased to reflect the current market.
Nye said market values haven’t changed much since the real estate market began declining in 2009, but since 2015, the market has been on the upswing and the state wants each county to reflect those changes.
According to Nye, how the property value increase will affect taxes won’t be assessed until the end of December.
Anyone who wishes to dispute their property value can informally discuss it during hearings throughout the week before officially presenting a private appraisal done in the past 18 months, or disputing inaccuracies on their property record card by filing a Board of Revision complaint.
The formal appeal process begins in January and runs through the end of March.
A panel consisting of one county commissioner, the county treasurer and the county auditor will make any final decisions.
More information about filing for a Board of Revision can be found on the Muskingum County Auditor’s website, or by clicking on this link.
Fred Gwynn • Sep 19, 2020 at 6:50 pm
The Muskingum County Auditors office is strongly biased towards NON objective property valuation and tax appeal process, as the County believes they only benefit from higher valuation and therefore higher tax billings.
Who do you think the 3 person panel of Debra Nye, Crooks and Treasurer Hamill are looking out for?
To call this group CORRUPT is an understatement, as they live on the backs of responsible property owners, and will only end up driving investment and responsible property owners out of the County, leaving it more and more to Gov’t subsidence of the economically weak.
What sort of worsening social and societal problems in Muskingum do you think will arise from that approach?
Gloria Buchanan • Oct 17, 2018 at 10:09 am
All homeowners in Muskingum County just received their new tax evaluation of their homes in the past week or 2. Mine went up severely, like over $70k in 1 year! Please if your property value increased, and you don’t think it is correct, first look at the Muskingum County Auditor’s website (www.muskingumcountyauditor.org) It will show all of your property information that the auditor has on file and is basing the value of your home on. Is is correct? Square footage, porches, # of baths, bedrooms, etc. I look at this site almost every day when I am reviewing replacement cost evaluations of homes and there are a lot of discrepancies. There are 3 more meetings this week. I went last night to Newton Twp fire department. Spoke to a wonderful gentleman. 1 thing was listed totally incorrectly. He is going to look into a discrepancy that I have and my depreciation of my home (per him) was too low. Value of my home still increased, but not over $70,000.00 in 1 year. If this does not work for you, and you really fell the value is overpriced, get an appraisal done on your home and appeal. You will not be paying tax on this this year, but this evaluation is for this year’s taxes. I live in Muskingum County and I am happy to pay my fair share of taxes, but not a penny more. As my dad always quoted, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” God bless!
Alice Donohue • Oct 16, 2018 at 11:53 am
the value of our homes is increased with improvements not only by us but by our roads and water and fire dept. and schools.. In our end of the county we do not have any of the above. Our roads are really bad and we do not have money to fix them.. Our side of the river from Philo down has no water or fire hydrants and so our insurance is a lot higher . There are a lot of us that have to haul all of our water, that means keeping a truck with a water tank.. we have upkeep on our trucks tires and insurance ect. driving on driving on bad roads. and the danger of climbing in and our of them to hook up a water halo that does not fit any tank I know of. There are no plans to make it better for us that I know of..So I am quite sure that if I wanted to sell my property all of these things would come into the final price that I could get. We are getting nothing down here for our taxes . So they want to raise our taxes to pay for what? We do not see any improvements from our county officials. I am a widow living on a fixed income so how am I expected to go back out and go to work just so I can keep my home that I have already worked to pay for..
Teresa Ruppel • Oct 16, 2018 at 11:23 am
Maybe if everyone who ownes property payed their taxes the rest of us wouldn’t be penalized! This would be a fine time to post all the delinquents! I have called about a property that tases hadn’t been paid for seven years! Really how does that happen! And the person on the phone was surprised? And says oh he hasn’t paid anything on his apartments either. How much did the Linden ave property go up? The one with all the junk? I’m sure our city is making lots of money from that. Some things are just wrong!
S. Hendricks • Oct 15, 2018 at 8:50 pm
I agree with Ms. Jones. Contact your state representative and let your voice be heard . Also you can vote for change in next election. I guess republicans are not really for lower taxes like they claim.
Marrijanejo Jones • Oct 15, 2018 at 4:08 pm
There’s something wrong that we, the homeowner, has to prove the value of our properties! Shouldn’t it be that we should be given proof from the Auditor how they can justify the inflated increase.