Real Estate

Real Estate Appraisal and Assessment

The State of Ohio has more than 5.5 million separate parcels of real property. It is the duty of the Auditor to see that every parcel of land and the buildings thereon are fairly and uniformly appraised and assessed for tax purposes.

A general reappraisal is mandated by Ohio law every six years with an update at the three year midpoint. Ohio’s Constitution, laws, and court cases have determined that the value of property for tax purposes is the estimated fair market value of the property; the price the property would be expected to sell for in the open market when both buyer and seller have full knowledge of all relevant facts about the property and the uses to which it may be put. Market value takes into consideration the physical characteristic of the property, recent sales, and the location of the property.

The County Auditor maintains a detailed and accurate record of the appraisal on each parcel in the county. These records are open for public inspection and in many counties available on the Internet.

Real Estate Taxes and Rates

Under law, the County Auditor cannot raise or lower property taxes. Tax rates are determined by the budgetary requests of each governmental unit, as authorized by the vote of the people, and are computed in strict accordance with procedures required by the Division of Tax Equalization, Ohio Department of Taxation. For taxation purposes, properties are assessed at 35% of fair market value.

Your tax bill is based on the assessed value of your property, multiplied by the tax rate in your community. This is your proportional share of the cost of operating your local government including schools, townships, villages and the county.

Ohio law limits the amount of taxation without a vote of the people to what is known as the “10 mill limitation” ($10.00 per $1,000 of assessed valuation). Any additional real estate taxes for any purpose must be voted by county residents. Your “tax rate” is an accumulation of all these levies and bond issues.

The County Auditor determines the eligibility of properties for various tax reductions and rollbacks under state law, including the Homestead Exemption Act, Current Agricultural Use Value, Forestry Tax Law, and other tax reduction programs.

Special Assessments

Special Assessments are not part of your real estate tax, but are included as a separate item on the real estate tax bill. These could include such items as ditch assessments, improvement levies such as street paving, curbs, lighting, sidewalks and sewer or water lines. The County Auditor is required by law to keep an accounting of these special assessments, to place them on the tax duplicate as separate items, and to return the money collected to the city, village, township or county office which levied the assessment.

Manufactured Housing

Under Ohio law, it is the responsibility of owners of manufactured homes (house trailers) to register their homes with the County auditor for tax purposes. Annually, the Auditor’s office assesses each manufactured home. Tax bills are sent to each owner semi-annually.

The manufactured housing tax is distributed back to the local taxing districts (townships and schools) in the same manner as real estate taxes. Statewide there are over 200,000 manufactured homes on the tax lists.

Homestead Exemption

Standard Homestead Exemption

The Homestead Exemption allows low-income senior citizens and permanently and totally disabled Ohioans, to reduce their property tax bills by shielding some of the market value of their homes from taxation. The exemption, which takes the form of a credit on property tax bills, allows qualifying homeowners to exempt up to $25,000 of the market value of their homes from all property taxes. For example, a home with a market value of $100,000 is billed as if it is valued at $75,000.

For 2018 the qualifications are:

Own your home as your principal place of residence on January 1, 2018
At least 65 or totally and permanently disabled (proof is required)
Adjusted gross income in 2017 of $31,800 or less (line 3 of Ohio Income Tax Return)

Applications are available from your County Auditor.

Disabled Veterans Expanded Homestead Exemption

The Disabled Veterans Expanded Homestead Exemption is available for military veterans who have been determined to have a 100% service-connected disability, (or be a surviving spouse) and own and have occupied a home as the principal place of residence on January 1^st of the year in which the application is filed. This program exempts $50,000 of market value from their home. For example, a home with a market value of $100,000 is billed as if it is valued at $50,000.