Reassessment sees Trempealeau home values jump significantly

The average homeowner in the Village of Trempealeau saw a 60-percent increase in their home’s value after this year’s reassessment, while the average commercial property owner saw a 35 percent jump in value.

Trempealeau’s reassessment, conducted by Bowman Appraisal, Inc. of Eau Claire, is officially completed. 

New home values were mailed to all village residents on Sept. 25.

Residents will likely see higher tax bills from the village, but those increases are “mostly” related to the village’s pool referendum from last year, according to village Administrator/Finance Director Isaac Pooler

The Village conducted an open book meeting on Oct. 10 for residents to view their reassessments and schedule an appointment if they want to refute the reassessed value in front of a board of review composed of the village President and three other trustees.

The Board of Review meets this Wednesday, Oct. 25.

Home values in Trempealeau average about $250,000 with the new assessment, and most residents saw a jump in their property values since the last assessment was conducted in 2015, Pooler told the Times last week.

Village property values sat at 69 percent of true fair market value in 2022, which required the reassessment.

“Ours was off by quite a bit but then also from the time we got that number to the time when they started probably dipped more. So, ours was pretty low compared to market value,” he said.

Increases in home values are “predominantly” related to ensuring taxes reflect fair market value, Pooler said.

“We haven’t done a full assessment since before the (COVID) pandemic, and during the pandemic with super low interest rates and what you saw with the housing market, the fair market values have exploded in residential areas. As that happens and our residential value is locked in, that’s how it gets way out of whack.”

Assessed values have no relationship to how much the village can levy in taxes, Pooler said. “Just because our assessed values skyrocket does not mean that we can levy for more property taxes.”

New property values will be reflected in December tax bills, and with the village seeing a widespread increase, most people will not see a big jump in their individual tax dues from the city.

“There’s a corresponding drop in mill rate when you do this. Assessed values, residential, are going to climb say 60-percent, you’re going to see a really, really big decrease in the mill rate and for the most part that should really even out for your taxes unless you did have improvements in between those years.”

“But if you didn’t make any major improvements to your property,” Pooler said, “And everyone else around you, their property values are going up at the same rate, it should even out.”

The village has an estimate of what its levy will be, and nearly all of the increase to that number will be related to the village’s pool referendum instead of new assessed values.

“With the education we did around the referendum people should expect that the village taxes are going up,” Pooler said, “but it’s like 96 percent the pool referendum.”