Deadline approaching for Wyandotte County homeowners to appeal valuations

Yahoo

26-03-2025

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – The deadline is quickly approaching for Kansas homeowners to appeal their home evaluations.
The deadline is generally around the end of this month, varying upon when valuations were sent out with a 30 day window to appeal. In Wyandotte County it's Saturday, March 29.
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Kansas appraises houses every year compared to every two years in Missouri, so increases are generally less dramatic.
But a slowing housing market seems to be leading to fewer appeals so far this year. For the fifth time since notices went out at the beginning of this month of updated home valuations, Wyandotte County's appraiser was meeting with homeowners.
Inside Piper High School, Matt Willard explained the annual process, that by Kansas statute only requires exterior inspections of homes every six years.
So that means a lot of what your home's value is assessed at, will be based on the price your neighbors or comparable homes sold.
After year over year double digit increases last year, the median sale price of a Wyandotte County home rose by 6.7% from $210,000 to $224,000.
'The rate of appreciation slowed, so they are still generally selling for more houses are than they were the year before. 5-6% is what they were seeing in the MLS (multiple listing service) and we are tracking with that,' Willard said.
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Of course home prices aren't the only things going up.
'We have two kids in daycare, gas, traveling to work, so it's getting to be too much,' Alanna Martin said.
It's part of why after years of contemplating doing so, Martin has already filed an appeal this year.
'They had the comps listed and I felt like they were too old. That's not really relevant to the current market. My house has all these issues so I'm just going to present it to them and see if they can help me out a bit.'
A big part of the Wyandotte County Appraisers presentation is helping homeowners prepare for appeals, including finding proper comps, photos of damages and repair estimates.
The deadline for residential homeowners in Wyandotte County to file an appeal is Saturday, March 29. Informal appeals hearings have to be complete by May 15.
'I would encourage anyone who gets that notice and feels like their value is over what they could sell it for as of January 1, fill out the back of it or go online and file that appeal because this is an important part of the process,' Willard said.
Another info session is scheduled at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, at Armourdale Community Center.
More than 50,000 homeowners appealed Jackson County assessments the last time they were conducted years ago. Working for you, FOX4 reached out to the Jackson County Assessor's Office to find out where the county stood on assessments this year and whether it also would have info sessions to educate or assist homeowners.
Public Information Officer Marshanna Smith responded that Jackson County will mail valuation notices to property owners by the state's statutory deadline of June 15.
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Eligible senior residents—those 62 years and older who own and reside in their homes—are encouraged to apply for the county's Senior Property Tax Credit Program. This program helps protect seniors from rising property taxes by freezing their tax amount at the year of approval. To date, nearly 39,000 applications have been approved, according to Smith.
According to Smith, to ensure more eligible seniors have the opportunity to apply, County Executive Frank White, Jr. has requested that the Legislature extend the application deadline to Monday, June 30, 2025. If approved, this extension would provide additional time for residents to take advantage of this important tax relief program and have their property tax bill frozen in the future at the 2024 amount. Approved applicants will see the tax credit reflected on their 2025 property tax bills.
Once approved, seniors are not required to reapply for future years as long as they remain eligible.
More information on how to apply is available here.
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