Automated Review of Properties with Decline in Values

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

As a result of the declining real estate market, the Office of the Assessor took it upon itself to proactively review 482,000 properties to determine if they qualified for a reduction in value. Doing so would ensure that property owners do not pay more than their fair share of taxes in accordance with the law. However, this massive effort could not be achieved with existing resources and staffing thus presenting a challenge. Additionally, the department was flooded with inquiries from wonders about the decline-in-value of their properties as well as from others who received solicitations from companies requesting fees for services that the assessor provides for free. The solution was twofold: 1) the development of a very creative automated computerized tool that facilitated the preparation of appraisals and which reduced the number of properties that appraisers needed to review by 232,000 and reduced labor by 23,200 hours; 2) the creation of a website to allow property owners to check the status of the Assessor’s review and which, among other information, alerts then that the decline in value review is provided by the department for free and that no third-party needed to be paid to initiate such services.