Allegheny County real estate
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
In Allegheny County, there's a significant chasm between real estate assessments and sales prices
1/9/2020
Nobody thinks the Allegheny County real estate assessments are
anywhere close to correct, but most property owners seem to be OK
with this game being stuck on tilt. There’s certainly no political
appetite for a massive makeover. Longtime homeowners sitting in
places worth a lot more than the assessed values are wary of any
attempt to get the numbers right.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.)
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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?”
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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
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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.
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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.
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