CLARENCE, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Town of Clarence announced it has gone through a town-wide reassessment.
A town spokesperson shared a column written by Supervisor Patrick Casilio in The Clarence Bee and said Casilio wants to make sure property owners are aware that they can challenge their new assessment.
To challenge your assessment you have to file a formal written complaint on the form RP-524 which is available at the assessor’s office or online through the town website. The town said all informal review submissions must be received by March 28, 2024 and assessments will be finalized on July 1, 2024.
You can read Casilio's full column below:
"Many of you have already received notice in the mail regarding updated property assessments. The Town of Clarence has just gone through a town-wide reassessment. The State of New York encourages all municipalities to be as close to 100 percent assessment as possible. If a town falls behind, the state assigns an equalization rate that usually, through calculation adjustments, means the property owner will pay higher taxes than if they were fully assessed. The Town of Clarence does a town-wide 13,100 parcel reassessment every four years.
With the high demand for housing, property values have risen exponentially across the nation. The demand for housing in Clarence is even higher, with young people wanting to take advantage of living in the Clarence School District. The demand for medium housing is so high that a recent home sale had 127 showings with 40 offers. I have mentioned in many of my columns that Clarence has yet to plan large housing developments for the future. Last month, the town issued two building permits for houses. At this permit rate, we will never catch up to the over 400 homes built in Amherst last year, and our town board doesn’t want to. With new housing unavailable, the demand for existing housing will remain high, escalating the value of our homes even more.
The town-wide reassessments are the best way to ensure that assessments are fair and accurate for everyone. The reassessment does not mean taxes are guaranteed to increase automatically. With the state asserting that the town is only at an 80 percent assessed value, most houses will probably realize a 30 percent increase in assessment. If you check your town tax over the past ten years, you will notice how consistently, when property values increased, I lowered our tax rate - now at 74 cents a thousand.
Tax rates have yet to be set for your new assessment. All governing bodies' budgets for this fall will be based on the new assessments. More than likely, every level of government will have to tighten their belts so we can assign a rate that adjusts to the increase in property values. Unlike nearby towns, all my budgets have fallen within the state-mandated tax cap. After reassessment, I expect to stay within the tax cap by dropping the town tax rate to around 53 cents thousand, neutralizing your increase in assessment.
You have the right to challenge the newly assessed value of your home. If you disagree with your property assessment, to protect your right to assessment review, you must file a formal written complaint on the officially prescribed form RP-524, which is available at our assessor’s office or online through our town website. If you have doubts about your new assessment, I encourage you to at least file to reserve your rights. All informal review submissions must be received by March 28, 2024. Assessments will be finalized on July 1, 2024, so they can be applied to the fall town, county, and school budgets.
Be aware of realtors who claim they can help you with your reassessments. They can do market analyses for you but will likely want to try to list your house or get you to downsize to a smaller home. The town assessor’s office can help you find houses to compare your assessment. Information regarding property assessments, inventory data, and past sale information is available at https://townofclarence.prosgar.com [townofclarence.prosgar.com].
Amherst has been in the news a lot because of its major tax increase and new assessments. To put this into perspective – Amherst had an 11.4% tax increase for the 2024 budget. Their taxes over the past six years have gone up over 38 percent. Clarence has had a 0% tax increase over the past nine years. Besides raising taxes beyond the state tax cap, Amherst had fallen behind on assessments to 62% of the full assessed value, impacting their residents even harder at once than necessary.
This Clarence Town Board continues to provide outstanding town services, a safe community, and economic growth without raising taxes."
