Philly homeowners will see property tax bills increase $330 on average as city reassesses properties

The average Philadelphia homeowner will see their property tax bill increase by $330 this year, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration announced Monday as her office prepares to release the first citywide real estate reassessment in two years.

The city will mail reassessment notices to property owners beginning Wednesday, and the new valuations will be searchable on the city’s website around that time, the city said.

Tax bills are due March 31, 2025, and the average homeowner’s bill will be about $2,300, assuming they are signed up for the homestead exemption. The real estate tax rate is 1.3998% of a property’s taxable assessed value. Parker and City Council this year left the rate unchanged, but tax bills increase when assessments go up as property values grow over time. The overall value of residential properties, which make up a vast majority of the parcels, increased 19% under new values.

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

“Our residential real estate market is strong,” Finance Director Rob Dubow said. “That’s a good indicator for the Philadelphia market’s desirability, but again it means taxes will go up.”

But not all real sectors of the local estate market are growing. The combined value of Philadelphia’s office buildings, whose owners have struggled to maintain tenants in the work-from-home era, decreased 6% in the reassessment, Dubow said.

Over the last decade, Philadelphia has vastly improved the accuracy of its property tax rolls. But inaccuracies persist, and homeowners in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods have been disproportionately affected by the resulting tax hikes. The city has also struggled to complete reassessments on an annual basis, which is key because it leads to small consistent increases over time rather than sticker shock over new valuations that capture multiple years of growth in the real estate market.

In 2022, the Office of Property Assessment completed its first citywide reassessment in three years. The city was then faced with a deluge of property owners questioning and appealing their sharply increased valuations, and in 2023, the last year of Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration, OPA pushed back the next reassessment for an additional year, leading to Monday’s announcement.

Dubow said Monday that the administration is not sure whether it will be able to complete a citywide reassessment next year.

“We’d love to get to annual [reassessments]. The goal is regular,” he said.

Under state law, the new valuations were supposed to be released by the end of March, but the city was four months late in producing them this year.

Dubow said Monday that the delay was to allow for the completion ratio studies, which showed that the reassessment met industry standards for accuracy and fairness, and to build new outreach programs to increase awareness about tax relief programs, a priority for Parker.

Parker said residents can expect to see outreach workers “in their neighborhoods knocking on their door to ensure that they just have access to prop tax relief programs and home improvement programs.”

“We’re trying to do things a new way,” she said.

Montgomery L. Wilson, a senior attorney with Community Legal Services’ Consumer Housing Unit, said he does not believe the city has left adequate time for owners to review their assessment and decide whether to appeal before the Oct. 7 deadline, which is set in state law.

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

“We seem to have a problem in Philadelphia with doing timely assessments in Philadelphia,” Wilson said. “Most people are going to have something like 50 days to learn of their assessment, figure out that it’s going to increase their bills, figure out how to appeal it, and file their appeal.”

He suggested Council pass a resolution encouraging the Board of Revision of Taxes to accept challenges filed after that date, which he said it has done in the past.

The city has more than 580,000 real estate parcels, including residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional plots, and they are valued at a combined $231 billion in the new reassessment, up from $207 billion.

Many property owners, especially those in rapidly gentrifying areas, will see their tax bills go up by far more than the $330 average increase. Others will see smaller increases, and about 20,000 properties will have decreased assessments.

Owners who believe their assessments are inaccurate have two ways to contest the valuations. First, they can request that the Office of Property Assessment conduct a First Level Review, an informal process in which the agency takes a second look at its own work.

To file a formal appeal, property owners must challenge their assessments with the Board of Revision of Taxes.

To combat the expected increase in assessments, Council this year proposed and Parker agreed to raise the homestead exemption, which reduces the assessed value of owner-occupied properties, from $80,000 to $100,000. That program will save property owners up to a total of up to $1,399, depending on the value of their homes. Owners of homes assessed at $100,000 or less don’t owe any property taxes if they enroll in the program.

Council also created a new relief program for low-income homeowners that freezes property tax bills for individuals who make less than $33,500 annually and married couples who make less than $41,500.

“In light of today’s property tax reassessment announcement, I am proud of the work done this year by my City Council colleagues to provide residents with much needed relief,” Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson said in a statement. “We understand that the most affordable home is the one you already own.”

The city also offers a tax freeze program for low-income seniors; the Longtime Owner Occupants Program, or LOOP, which protects residents in gentrifying areas; and Owner-Occupied Payment Agreement program, or OOPA, which allows owners enter into payment plans to avoid sheriff’s sales.

Property tax revenue is split between the city and school district. Parker this year successfully pushed Council to increase the share that goes to the school district from 55% to 56%, which the administration said will produce $125 million in additional revenue for schools over five years.

Expected increases in property values will net the district another $115 million in that period, for an overall increased contribution of $240 million from the local property tax.