Allegheny County & Pittsburgh Property Assessment

Allegheny County Office of Property Assessments office is located at:
County Office Building
542 Forbes Avenue, Third Floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Phone number - (412) 350-4600

Deer Lakes School board wary of property appeals

Recouping taxes from properties that may be underassessed seems to be an unlikely proposition in the Deer Lakes School District. On Tuesday night, the school board came to the consensus that it might be more of an expense than it's worth. Board member Gary Torick questioned if the board should be going after properties with an assessment below the price for which it may have recently been sold. Read more

Shine a spotlight on assessments

Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016
The real estate tax is the most transparent of all taxes. The property tax is easy to understand and computed annually. The assessments and millage rates based on those assessments are published on the Allegheny County website. Transparency, right? Read more

Disparities found in Allegheny County property assessments

Could lead to a flood of appeals on commercial buildings
August 18, 2016

It could be bad news for the city of Pittsburgh, its school district and other taxing bodies if potential assessment appeals cut into the property tax revenue they are counting on to balance increasingly tight budgets.

The state is finding growing disparities in Allegheny County property assessments, and some fear it could open the door for a rash of appeals next year, particularly among larger commercial real estate owners looking for a way to lower their tax bills. That could be bad news for the city of Pittsburgh, its school district and other taxing bodies if potential appeals cut into the property tax revenue they are counting on to balance increasingly tight budgets. Read more

Assessment situation truly unappealing

May 3, 2016, 9:00 p.m
Colin McNickle and Jake Haulk are in agreement that Pittsburgh Mayor Peduto's withdrawal of 1,300 residential property tax assessment appeals ( “Of Uber, property taxes & muskets” ) doesn't resolve the issue of fair taxation in Allegheny County. There is also no reason for new city home buyers to run a victory lap. Why? There is a good chance that the Pittsburgh Public Schools might appeal all of the affected properties. If so, the county appeals board will find a market value at the full sales price. Game over. The winners will be the city, school district and county, which will be entitled to send out tax bills on the new, increased assessments. As Yogi Berra might have said, this process is not over until it's over. Read more

A pause for good cause: The city halts property appeals amid market heat

April 22, 2016 12:00 AM
As city neighborhoods such as Lawrenceville and East Liberty have attracted new investment, property values have soared. The downside: Long-term residents can be forced out of their homes by the real-estate taxes that climb with surrounding property values. To avoid this displacement, Mayor Bill Peduto has ordered a temporary halt to the city’s appeal of about 1,300 assessments. (The city appeals when it believes an owner’s tax bill is significantly lower than it should be, given the characteristics of the property and the neighborhood.) Read more

Brian O'Neill: The perpetual pain of Pa. property taxes

April 21, 2016 12:00 AM
INDIANA, Pa. — More than 60 people took seats in a big room on campus here Tuesday evening to ponder a question all too familiar to tens of thousands of Allegheny Countians: Why’s my property tax assessment suddenly so high? Or as Jeffrey Weber, an associate dean at East Stroudsburg University, put it to the crowd, “We haven’t gotten it right for 400 years. When are we going to get it right?” Read more

Pittsburgh mayor orders end to assessment appeals filed in '16

Monday, April 18, 2016
Pittsburgh is dropping all residential property tax assessment appeals it filed in 2016. Mayor Bill Peduto on Monday ordered an end to 1,300 appeals. The appeals filing deadline ended March 31 Read more

Mt. Lebanon to proceed with more property assessment appeals

February 10, 2016
Mt. Lebanon will appeal more residential property assessments in 2016. Commissioners voted 3-2 on Feb. 9 to contract with Diversified Municipal Services Inc. of McCandless to represent the municipality in defending and appealing assessed values, including compiling sales data on the subject and comparable properties. Read more

3 counties in Western Pennsylvania hope to avoid pitfalls in reassessments

Oct. 24, 2015
It took two years for data collectors in Washington County to visit about 80,000 homes. They measured. They took photographs. They talked to homeowners if anyone was there. Officials hope when property values arrive in March, complaints will be minimal. “I'm sure we're going to get some questions,” said Robert Neil, hired by the county to oversee the reassessment. “But I don't even want to use the word outcry.” Read more

Fix Pennsylvania’s awful property-tax system

October 4, 2015
Harrisburg lawmakers have sat by quietly for many years and permitted a flawed, possibly unconstitutional property-tax system to afflict our state. “If it’s broke, don’t fix it” seems to be the idea. And while Gov. Tom Wolf and others promise property tax relief, the base-year tax-assessment system without mandatory periodic updates is still the law of the land. Don’t expect anything to change soon. Read more