Philadelphia property assessments are months behind schedule, and Mayor Parker’s administration won’t say why

Many homeowners will see increased real estate tax bills this year because the city is reassessing all of Philadelphia’s roughly 580,000 properties for the first time in two years.

But if you want to know what your bill will be, you’ll have to wait.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration is months behind schedule in releasing the new valuations, and city officials won’t say what is causing the holdup.

“The city’s work on assessments is ongoing, and as soon as it concludes, it will be shared fully with the public,” Parker spokesperson Joe Grace said. He declined to answer more specific questions about the delay.

The deadline imposed by state law for Philadelphia to release the new assessments was March 31. As recently as early June, city Finance Director Rob Dubow said they would be completed by the end of the month. The administration is no longer offering a timeline for their release.

» READ MORE: How Mayor Parker is changing the conversation on Philly’s tax structure

The city in late June posted some valuations on the city’s online property search tool without announcing it to the public. But Dubow said that was a mistake — “some data was inadvertently placed on a city website,” he said — and the assessments were removed.

“I’m waiting with bated breath,” said Peter Kelsen, a Blank Rome attorney who works on real estate and land use. “It’s frustrating to the business community and it’s frustrating to the homeowners.”

The delay is causing uncertainty for commercial property developers over whether they can move forward with projects because they don’t know what their new tax bills will be, Kelsen said.

“This is budgeting season for major properties, commercial properties,” he said. “That’s another stressor.”

This year’s delay is the latest setback in a reform effort launched a decade ago by former Mayor Michael A. Nutter to fix what was long viewed as a broken, corrupt, and essentially random assessment system. Since then, the Office of Property Assessment has made major strides, especially around the accuracy of valuations, which has improved dramatically on a citywide basis but still reflects systemic biases on a neighborhood level.

But the office has struggled to find the capacity to reassess all properties on an annual basis. That’s key because it could put an end to a vicious cycle that has stymied the city’s efforts: When OPA completes a reassessment that captures multiple years of growth, as is the case this year, the city becomes overwhelmed by protests from owners objecting to eye-popping increases. To catch up, the office then has to forgo the next year’s reassessment, leading it to capture multiple years of growth the following cycle.

Monday marked the beginning of a new fiscal year for the city, and the $6.37 billion budget that Parker and City Council approved last month is now in effect.

Council had to approve that budget without knowing how much money the city expected to collect from the real estate tax, the second-largest revenue stream behind the wage tax.

» READ MORE: Council green-lights Mayor Cherelle Parker’s budget plans, including $100 million for a Northeast Philly drug rehab center

Parker in March estimated that revenue would grow 8% from residential properties and remain flat from commercial properties, a reflection in part of office vacancies due to the rise in downtown employers offering work-from-home options. That translated to an estimated $877 million for the city.

But Parker’s team promised to produce more concrete numbers by the time Council voted on the budget in early June. That didn’t happen.

Lawmakers were fearful that assessments could skyrocket for some vulnerable homeowners in gentrifying areas, given that the new valuations are going to reflect two years of growth. So they voted to increase the homestead exemption, which reduces assessments for owner-occupied properties, from $80,000 to $100,000. They also approved a new tax freeze program for low-income homeowners.

» READ MORE: Property tax bills are going up for many Philadelphians. Here’s how to access new tax relief measures.

The city left the property tax rate unchanged at 1.3998% of assessed value. Tax bills are due March 31, 2025, but the city sometimes offers a discount for owners who pay early.

Revenue from the property tax is split between the city and school district, and Council also approved Parker’s proposal to increase the district’s share from 55% to 56%. That change that won’t affect tax bills.

The state law that establishes the deadline for new assessments doesn’t include any consequences for the city if it blows past that date, Kelsen said.

But he cautioned that the city could run into legal trouble if it does not release the new valuations with a substantial amount of time before the deadline for property owners to appeal their assessments to the Board of Revision of Taxes, which this year is Oct. 7.

» READ MORE: How to appeal your property assessment in Philadelphia

“As long as there is ample opportunity for a property owner to file an appeal with appropriate time — I’m not talking about a day — then due process is served,” he said.

Kelsen, who is currently dealing with the city on several assessment disputes, said he suspects there was a “glitch” with the city’s computer assisted mass appraisal system, which is being used this year for a citywide reassessment for just the second time.

“They told us everything was sort of on hold because the, quote, system was not working properly,” he said.

Implementing CAMA, which was first used in the 2023 reassessment, was seen as a major step forward in Philly’s modernization efforts. Grace said the software is not the reason for the delay, but did not offer an alternative explanation.

“There is no glitch with the CAMA system,” he said.