Mosley Drive neighbors Jim Warner, Chris Weidman, and Jim Beamish (left to right) all saw their property tax assessments increase more than 20% this year. The assessment on the large brown house behind them went up $50,000 -- more than double. They said the house has been vacant and fallen into disrepair since 2009. N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com

Syracuse, N.Y. – One out of every nine Syracuse homeowners will get a property tax increase when the city sends out the bills this July. How are the unlucky few selected?

In some cases, it comes down to what side of the street you live on.

Tax increases – hundreds of dollars for most – will hit just a fraction of homeowners because the city’s system for raising property assessments is spotty and unfair.

To see why, consider Albert Road.

This year, most residents with even-numbered houses on Albert Road will face higher tax bills. The increases will range from roughly $350 to $600, including city, school and county taxes. That’s because all but one of their houses got reassessed in January.

Across the street, however, the odd-numbered houses were not reassessed even though they were built during the same era and are just as marketable. They have not been reassessed in at least five years. Their tax bills will stay the same this year.

“That’s pretty ridiculous,’’ said Isiah Odom, whose three-bedroom ranch got a $10,000 assessment increase. “In all fairness, how are you going to raise one side of the street and not the other?”

That is a good question. State law requires every municipality to set property assessments each year at a “uniform percentage of value.’’

Syracuse has failed for years to meet state standards for uniform property assessments. Rapidly rising home prices only make it worse.

If everyone whose house increased in value last year got a new assessment, the annual city-and-school tax burden of more than $100 million would be spread fairly among taxpayers.

But Syracuse assessors are unable to keep up with the changing values on 42,000 properties. Instead, they raise assessments on a few thousand properties each year, leaving most untouched, a strategy that falls short of the legal requirement to value all properties on a level scale.

Syracuse leaders say they are gradually making assessments fairer. State tax officials have asked for more, urging a citywide revaluation to get the assessments back into line. That’s a costly and politically unpopular option, and thus far city officials have resisted it. There is no penalty for ignoring the state’s guidance.

Most city residents are unaware of the unfairness. The state requires each homeowner to be notified if their assessment goes up, but the letter provides no context about what’s happening overall. Homeowners on Albert Road said they had no idea their neighbors across the street were not reassessed.

This year’s assessment hikes have big-dollar consequences.

This interactive map shows every residential assessment change in the city of Syracuse for 2022. Red dots show increases; green dots show decreases. Most of the changes were clustered in targeted neighborhoods. Source: City of Syracuse

All told, fewer than 3,700 homes got higher assessments, 11% of all residential properties. Together they will pay nearly $2 million in additional city, school and county taxes, according to a Syracuse.com analysis.

Taxes for every other homeowner in Syracuse – more than 28,000 other residential properties -- will stay the same. At least until next year.

Related: Assessments are increasing on half of residential properties in Onondaga County’s suburbs. Look up 141,000 homes

‘We’ve got a plan’

The city is trying to beef up the assessment department to appraise more properties.

Syracuse only had three full-time property appraisers doing assessments last year. That’s one fewer than the town of Manlius, which has one-third as many properties and far less variety in its housing stock.

Matthew Oja, the assessment commissioner, said he plans to fill two vacant positions on his staff this year and is asking the city council to add another. That would increase his total staff from seven people to 10. He’s also using new technology to identify which neighborhoods are most under-assessed.

With more staff and improved technology, Oja plans to do 6,000 appraisals this year – 33% more than last year and three times the usual number in recent years.

Houses on the west side of Albert Road got significant increases in property assessment this year. Across the street on the east side, assessments did not change.Photo illustration by Christa Lemczak

Over time, city officials say they can level out the uneven assessments.

“Nobody’s better aware than we are of the inequities in the (assessment) roll,’’ Oja said. “And I think we’ve got a plan in place to smooth those over as time goes by.”

When Nancy Nappi got a notice in January that the assessment on her Eastwood home had gone up $23,000, the letter included this comforting statement: “A change in your property’s assessment does not necessarily indicate that your taxes will change.”

In theory, that might be true. But not in Syracuse.

The city’s piecemeal approach to assessment guarantees that Nappi and others who got increases will pay more this year. At the current tax rates, Nappi’s bill is likely to jump up more than $800.

Assessors don’t raise taxes; they set the property values that determine each owner’s share of the overall burden. If assessment increases are broadly distributed throughout the municipality – as they were this year in some suburban towns – then any tax increase will be shared evenly and each person’s bill is unlikely to change sharply.

But in Syracuse, only a fraction of the property owners got new assessments. Without a change in the tax rates, their bills will go up – by several hundred dollars in most cases -- while most other homeowners will see no change.

Mayor Ben Walsh’s budget for the fiscal year beginning in July proposes to keep the combined city and school tax rate unchanged. But the city will raise $3.2 million more than last year, thanks to higher assessments.

That increase falls squarely on the owners of 3,700 homes and 500 commercial properties where assessments went up this year. They represent 11% of residential and 6% of non-residential properties. Syracuse.com estimates the residential share of the increase at about $1.4 million. The homeowners also will face more than $500,000 in additional county taxes next year, Syracuse.com estimates.

Had the city raised assessments more uniformly, that extra tax burden would be spread across the whole city.

On Mosley Drive, where Nappi lives, and surrounding streets, most homeowners were hit with assessment hikes. City appraisers blanketed the section of Eastwood east of Midler Avenue and south of James Street with increases. On many streets, the increases averaged about 20%.

The assessment on Chris Weidman’s two-bedroom house on Mosley Drive shot up 38%, from $53,000 to $73,000.

“That’s pretty hefty,’’ Weidman said.

All 93 residential properties on Mosley got increases, ranging from $7,900 to $50,000.

Here’s why: That neighborhood, known as Arlington, had not been increased for at least 15 years. Likely, Arlington residents have been paying too little tax for years, said Oja, the assessment commissioner.

Mosley Drive in Eastwood was one of the streets targeted this year for assessment changes. All 93 residential properties on the street got increases. N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com

That’s a basic problem with Syracuse assessments. Home values in some neighborhoods, including Eastwood, have risen much faster than values in other areas. Because the city hasn’t kept up with those changes, some residents get away with paying too little tax. Homeowners in less prosperous areas end up paying too much.

So the assessors are targeting areas like Eastwood to bring the assessments up, closer to market values. But they didn’t have enough staffing to do all of Eastwood.

The area west of Arlington, across Midler Avenue, also has many assessments that are 15 years out of date, Oja said.

Indeed, some houses on those streets – Forest Hill, Shotwell Park, Clifton and others – sold last year for $60,000 to $80,000 more than the full market value indicated by their assessments. Katelyn Wright, who owns a home on Forest Hill Drive, said she was surprised her assessment did not go up this year.

“I mean, I bought my house for $122,000 eight years ago, and houses on my street are selling for $210,000 cash,’’ she said.

Not one of the 102 residential properties on Forest Hill got an assessment increase this year. Assessors plan to look at that part of Eastwood soon, Oja said.

Keenan Wynn, who lives on Maplewood Avenue in the Valley neighborhood, said he and his wife assumed everyone was getting assessment hikes this year. They didn’t think much about the notice they got in January informing them of a $15,000 increase.

But Maplewood was one of just a handful of streets in the Valley to get hit this year.

“That’s not fair,’’ Wynn said. “They know that’s wrong.”

Maplewood Avenue resident Keenan Wynn said he and his wife gave little thought to their assessment increase in January because they assumed all city homeowners were getting them.Tim Knauss | tknauss@syracuse.com

Most assessment changes are increases, but not all. Sometimes the assessors also focus on distressed neighborhoods where property values have stagnated or declined. The city lowered 149 residential assessments this year, mostly in poor neighborhoods south of Colvin Street on the South Side.

Syracuse is not alone in its problems making property assessments fair. Many municipalities – especially cities -- are ill-equipped for the difficult job of keeping assessments in line with actual values, said Rebecca Speno, a lawyer who specializes in assessment issues.

“This is not just a Syracuse problem,’’ Speno said. “Our assessment offices statewide are understaffed, under supported, and our assessors do not have the tools they need to do their job effectively.”

Syracuse officials said they would consider doing a citywide revaluation if they can find a way to pay for it.

“New York State is indicating that a citywide reassessment may be necessary,’’ said Greg Loh, chief policy officer. “Considerations include selecting the right timing for a reassessment, recognizing the current spike in real estate valuations, and identifying the proper source of funding.”

Mayor Walsh has estimated it could cost up to $4 million to conduct a citywide reassessment. His administration might consider it, but not until the market stabilizes and experts can determine whether the bubble will burst, causing home prices to fall back again, city officials said.

During his unsuccessful campaign for mayor last year, Common Councilor Michael Greene proposed to use some of the city’s $123 million in federal stimulus money to pay for a citywide reassessment. Walsh is spending the stimulus on other priorities and has not considered using any for a revaluation, Loh said.

Homeowners who live on the west side of Albert Road in Syracuse, right, received increases in their property assessments this year. Properties on the other side of the street were not reassessed. N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com

In the end, the state tax department defers to local assessors to determine how they do their jobs. About one-third of all municipalities in New York do not meet the state’s standard for uniformity and fairness, including Syracuse.

Syracuse assessments grew gradually less consistent with each other in recent years, according to state data.

The state measures the uniformity of assessments with a statistic called the coefficient of dispersion, or C.O.D. The city should score 15 or less for residential properties. Syracuse’s C.O.D. has gotten steadily worse in recent years, rising from 14.74 in 2014 to 17.83 in 2020, the last year for which statistics were available. The city’s score in 2020 was a bit higher than the statewide median of 17.46.

Because some city neighborhoods gain value much faster than others, assessments that stay unchanged for years tend to benefit middle-class and wealthy neighborhoods and penalize poorer ones. Over the past three years, city officials have ramped up the number of annual assessments to address that problem, targeting prosperous neighborhoods to bring their assessments up to where they should be.

But the process is inherently uneven because the assessors can only get to a fraction of the properties each year.

One example of the city’s approach can be seen on upscale Harrington Road, near Nottingham High School. Ten houses on the odd-numbered side of the street were reassessed in 2021, with increases ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.

The even-numbered houses were not changed until this year. In 2022, houses on the even side of the street got increases ranging from $6,000 to $34,500.

The lumpiness of any one year’s assessment gradually smooths out over time, Oja said,

“I’m confident that we are improving,’’ he said. “Each year, this is getting more equitable, I think, across the roll, in broad strokes.’’

Still, the state’s legal mandate is to make sure all properties are assessed at a uniform percentage of value “each year,’’ according to the tax department. It is not clear when, or if, Syracuse’s approach will reach that standard.

Rising home prices mean your tax assessment is going up. Or not. Get ready for CNY’s wild property tax season

Syracuse’s unfair property tax system hurts poor the most; here’s what can be done

New York state has the ‘craziest’ assessments; Syracuse is average

Syracuse hikes hundreds of property tax assessments; it’s the most in 2 decades

Do you have a news tip or a story idea? Contact reporter Tim Knauss: email | Twitter | | 315-470-3023.

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