Nearly $2 billion in property taxes shifted onto homeowners from businesses over just three years, with a disproportionate share of the added burden falling on lower-income Black and Latino homeowners, a first-of-its-kind analysis by the Treasurer’s Office found. The shift largely resulted from the wide-ranging success of businesses appealing property valuations, called assessments, that determine their tax bills. From 2021 to 2023, which covers a complete three-year assessment cycle, business appeals shaved nearly $3.3 billion off the total amount billed to businesses across the county. More than $1.9 billion of that shifted onto homeowners.

Although previous studies have documented how assessment appeals shift tax burdens, the Treasurer’s Office study is the first to determine the resulting changes to the amounts billed to property owners. That analysis revealed that the percentage increases in tax amounts billed to homeowners were far greater in areas with lower-income minority populations. “This study helps explain why many homeowners have experienced sticker shock when opening their property tax bills in recent years,” Treasurer Maria Pappas said. “We hope our findings help guide policy makers in their ongoing efforts to make the appeals system more equitable.”

Key Findings:

• Businesses vs. Homeowners: Successful appeals by businesses caused their collective tax bills to drop by $3.3 billion, or 12.5%, while residential tax bills jumped by $1.9 billion, or 6.9%.

• Business owners appealed their assessments nearly 64% of the time, while homeowners appealed 27% of the time — with businesses winning far larger assessed value reductions.

• Business’ assessed value reductions surged to a total of $25.5 billion from 2021 to 2023 compared to $9.9 billion from 2015 to 2017. The difference is due mostly to larger reductions granted by the Board of Review. While business reductions rose, assessed value reductions for homeowners declined to $2.8 billion from $3.2 billion from 2021 to 2023.