El Paso County reappraisal shows median 4% drop; assessor outlines appeals and new assessment rules

El Paso County Assessor Mark Flucher told the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday, April 22, that the county's 2025 reappraisal produced a countywide median decline of roughly 4% and walked commissioners through how recently enacted state law changes will change the way residential property taxes are calculated.

The presentation matters to property owners because the assessor’s office sets market value while separate taxing authorities set mill levies; recent state changes split residential assessment rates between school districts and local governments, which can change who sees relief and who does not.

Flucher said assessors use mass-appraisal methods for the county’s more than 230,000 parcels, combining regression modeling, sales-trend adjustments and neighborhood factors such as construction quality, lot size and interior features. “Every odd year, county assessors are required to reappraise,” Flucher said, describing statutory appraisal and assessment dates: an appraisal date of June 30, 2024, and an assessment date of Jan. 1, 2025. He added that assessors use a 24-month data-gathering window that can create apparent timing anomalies for recently built homes.

Flucher cited the county’s audit metrics from the independent auditor contracted by the State Board of Equalization: the single-family unweighted median ratio was 0.961, which he said indicates assessed values overall were lower than sale prices but remained within the state’s acceptable range. “The results of our reappraisal is actually a county wide drop of a median of negative 4%,” Flucher said.

He explained how the legislature’s changes bifurcate assessment rates for residential property between schools and local government. Using a hypothetical $480,000 home in School District 11, he showed the 2024 taxes at about $1,577 and estimated the new split as $1,374 to schools and $443 to local government, for a projected total of about $1,817 assuming no mill-levy changes by taxing authorities. Flucher warned that whether taxes rise or fall will depend on mill-levy decisions by each taxing authority, not on the assessor’s office. Nonresidential assessment rates remain on a separate schedule (about 27% this year, with legislated reductions toward 25% by 2027), he said.

The assessor’s office will mail notices of value on May 1 to inform owners of their net 2025 value change and provide appeal instructions. Property owners or authorized agents may file an appeal with the assessor between May 1 and June 9 (June 8 falls on a weekend this year). “Owners and agents ... may appeal property value every single year to the county assessor,” Flucher said, and he urged appellants to submit comparable sales or independent appraisals rather than the statement “taxes are too high.”

New timing rules for larger counties also lengthen the appeals calendar: counties with 300,000 or more residents may use an extended appeal process that gives assessors until Aug. 15 to respond, and county board-of-equalization hearings (with this board serving as BOE) will be scheduled in September and October and must conclude no later than Nov. 3. If homeowners are dissatisfied with a referee’s decision at the county level, Flucher listed further options: appeal to the state Board of Assessment Appeals, seek relief in District Court (which he said entails additional cost and civil-procedure rules), or pursue binding arbitration.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions. Commissioner Weisong asked which local entities were included in the “local government mill levy” example; Flucher said that example combined El Paso County, the City of Colorado Springs, a special improvement/maintenance district and the library district but said he could split El Paso County out as its own line in the slide. Commissioner Applegate asked about the cost to upgrade the assessor’s software; Flucher said the initial upgrade cost “was about a quarter of a million” dollars, with ongoing service and maintenance costs.

Flucher said the office will post the presentation graphics on the assessor’s website and can share an Excel calculator staff used to estimate assessed values and taxes. He reminded homeowners that the assessor’s office cannot change assessment rates set by the legislature and encouraged residents to follow their local taxing-authority meetings if they want to influence mill-levy decisions.

Separately, the board approved the consent calendar, including items 5a1 through 5a5, on a 5-0 roll-call vote. Commissioner Applegate moved to approve the consent calendar; a commissioner seconded (not specified in the record). The chair called the roll: Commissioner Brummer — yes; Commissioner Weisong — yes; Commissioner Applegate — yes; Vice Chair Williams — yes; the chair — yes.

The assessor’s materials and the office’s calculator will be posted online, and the clerk noted the next scheduled meeting is a land-use hearing Tuesday, April 24, at 9:00 a.m.