City Assessed Property Market Value - Accurate Metric?

[Alexander Sadeghi]

Hey, first time property owner here in Denver. While looking into the Denver Property Taxation and Assessment System, I noticed that the newest estimated Market Value of my condo is well below what I paid (20% lower).  Is this pretty standard? Are these estimated values reliable indicators of what a properties worth might be, or do they routinely come in low? 

[Chris Schlechta]

@Alexander Sadeghi it depends on your market. Historically in WI the tax assessed value lagged behind market value. Sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot. Some municipalities, including the one I live in moved to a more market price based approach to valuations.

In my town the real estate market is red hot. By the time the municipality updates the assessed value it almost 1yr old but still closer than the old method. While our tax valuation went up, our actual taxes decreased (more valuation for the municipality without a corresponding increase in cost of services, reduces actual tax bill).

The tax assessed value is just one metric to use for determining market value, but I wouldn’t rely on it for much more than a foot note. It’s a more telling indicator when the property being offered for sale is under the assessed value.