This year's property tax bills have been raising some eyebrows. And a new study coproduced by a sociologist and nonprofit Housing Opportunities Made Equal suggests they're not hitting everyone across the county the same way.
Sociologist Junia Howell conducted the research.
"Because of the combination of levy increases and a new tax assessment, we've actually reshuffled who's paying," she said. "The houses that are on that top 20 percent of the highest value, their taxes on average went down. And the inverse is true. Those big jumps are highly concentrated on the houses we've historically valued as the least valuable."
According to the study, about a quarter of properties in the county saw their taxes go down, and another quarter saw them stay flat. Those properties tended to be, on average, among the highest value in the county. Meanwhile, the biggest increases in property taxes tended to be among lower-valued properties.
The report contains a number of data points. It says that homes in low-income neighborhoods saw an average increase of $730 a year in their property taxes, while homes in the wealthiest neighborhoods saw an average increase of about $410 a year.
The study also found racial disparities in the increases, with white residents on average seeing smaller increases in their tax bills than residents of color did.
The Hamilton County Auditor performed a property value reassessment in 2023, as it is required by state law to do every six years. That reassessment saw an average increase of $610 on county residents' tax bills, or about a 12 percent increase on average.
But residents of low and moderate-income neighborhoods like the Price Hills noticed their increases were quite high.
That's put a crimp in many budgets, residents say, especially for seniors and others on fixed incomes.
Howell says the pressure on low and moderate income people isn't necessarily new. She points to data she analyzed from 2004 to 2024.
"In our county, those in the bottom of the income distribution, the percentage of their income spent on annual property taxes doubled. while it stayed relatively stable on the top end," Howell says of the last two decades.
Howell says the study controls for rising real estate values, and that increased market value of homes isn't the major reason for the large upswing in property taxes.
Instead, it's new levies voters approved and changes to the way property values are assessed by the Hamilton County Auditor, according to Howell.
Each of those levies collects a fixed amount of money, and when property assessments rise, the amount each person pays into the pot changes so that the same overall dollar amount is collected.
The auditor's assessments are based on recent sales, the size and condition of a home, its location, real estate activity and sale prices nearby, and many other variables.
Howell notes that homes are assessed for sale or for their equity using real estate appraisal, which is a separate process from the assessments the county does. Thus, it's possible to see your tax bill increase without the equity in your home increasing by as much.
That can put lower-income homeowners in what Howell calls "a double bind," in which they owe more in taxes but don't have a home worth a lot more on the market.
Local and state officials say they're looking for ways to reduce the burden on moderate income homeowners. The study suggests state law changes, alternate tax assessment techniques for the county auditor and lower property taxes offset by other revenue sources for municipalities like the City of Cincinnati.
