Wauwatosa property assessments; homeowners seeing increase

Wauwatosa homeowners see property assessments go up

The Wauwatosa assessor's office said, on average, homeowners are seeing a more than 50% increase in property assessments going up.

WAUWATOSA, Wis. - Some property assessments in Wauwatosa are going way up.

What we know:

The city assessor's office said, on average, homeowners are seeing a more than 50% increase. Some homeowners say they were shocked when they got their assessments, and they're trying to fight it.

It might be nice to hear your home has gone up in value, but when Bob Gorman saw his assessment increase by more than 50%, he couldn't believe it.

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"It’s just quite a leap for it to go up this much," Gorman said. "It’s great the house goes up in price, but that’s not going to help with the property taxes."

He headed into the assessor's office to figure out what this meant for him.

"How’s that going to affect the total amount of tax we have to pay?" he asked.

By the numbers:

The assessor's office said, on average, Wauwatosa property owners saw an assessment increase of 54%. The office completed a revaluation this year and reviewed all property assessments, looking at current real estate and market conditions.

The last time that happened was six years ago.

Kim Casey said she was prepared for an increase after making improvements to her home, but understands others' frustrations.

"So, we knew, but it still was like, ‘whoa,’" Casey said. "I feel bad for people who aren’t prepared or somebody who’s at this point on a fixed income, and they don’t have the bandwidth for it."

The city assessor's office said you can expect to see an increase in property taxes if your assessment went more up than average and may go down if it's less.

Local perspective:

Gorman, like so many others, is now trying to figure out what to do next.

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"My wife and I are retired, so we’re trying to figure out if the price of the house went up that much," he said. "How's that going to affect the overall property tax bill?"

The assessor said the office is experiencing a high number of calls and emails and is responding in the order it gets them.

What you can do:

If you want to figure out what this means for your property taxes, you can use the city's Property Tax Calculator.