The State Tax Equalization Board (STEB) has published its list of common level ratios (CLR) for counties for 2016. The CLR is “…the ratio pf assessed value to current market value used generally in the county as last determined by STEB”. The CLR is the average of individual sales ratios for valid sales in the previous calendar year, certified on July 1st of the following year, and is in use for the following fiscal year.
In other words, the 2016 CLR takes sales from January 1 through December 31, 2016, will be certified July 1, 2017, and be in effect from July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018. We wrote about the 2015 CLR for Allegheny County last August when it was 87.1 and expanded on it this year when analyzing 2016 appeals. Based on analysis of average home prices we wrote that it was a strong possibility that the 2016 CLR would fall further. However, the ratio is up slightly, from 87.1 to 87.4 based on STEB’s document.
Since the CLR was 100 in 2012 when properties were reassessed, it fell for 2013 (90.8), bumped up in 2014 (92), fell again for 2015 (87.1) and bumped up again for 2016 (87.4). The previous decade between 2002 and 2012 saw year over year decreases in the CLR with the exception of 2008 when the CLR rose to 87.5 from 86.5 the year before. Based on a Judge’s ruling the CLR can be used in appeals in Allegheny County, and the appeal activity for 2017 will be analyzed in early 2018.
