Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
Revolutionizing · Modernizing · Simplifying
You protested your reassessment back in the spring. You wrote the letter, you pulled the comps, you made your case to the assessor. And then the Notice of Determination showed up in the mailbox and said, basically, no. Value stands.
Most people read that and figure it is over. It is not.
Here is the part people miss. Colorado runs a two-step appeal process, and the first step, the one where you go straight to the county assessor, ran May 1 through June 8 this cycle and is closed. But if you protested and you disagree with the determination they sent back, you get a second shot. It is an appeal to the county Board of Equalization, the CBOE, and in most of the Denver Metro counties that window is still open right now.
It does not stay open long.
Jefferson County confirms the Notices of Determination went out by August 15. From there, property owners have until September 15 to file an appeal to the Board of Equalization. The board has to wrap up its hearings by November 1 and notify you within five business days after that.
Boulder County lands on the same date. September 15 to file a written CBOE appeal, and you need to bring comparable sales, photos, and real evidence supporting a lower value. Not a feeling. Not "my neighbor thinks it is too high." Actual documentation.
Now here is where you have to be careful, because the deadlines are not uniform across the Front Range. Denver County's CBOE petition deadline is listed as July 15, which, if that is your county, has already come and gone. So do not read "September 15" and assume you are safe. Verify your specific county's date before you do anything else. This is the kind of thing where one wrong assumption costs you two years.
Why two years? That is the whole reason this matters.
The 2025 reassessment did not just set your 2025 value. It set the actual value used for both the 2025 and 2026 tax years. The next reassessment does not happen until 2027. So if you let this number sit, it rides your tax bill all the way through 2026. You are not fighting one year. You are fighting two.
And the number itself is built on a specific window of sales. Your 2026 value is based on comparable sales from the appraisal period that ended June 30, 2024. Only sales between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2024 count. That is the single most important thing to understand when you build your case. The assessor does not care what a house down the street is asking today. They care what sold inside that window. So the comps you bring have to come from that same period, or they carry almost no weight.
Once the value is set, the math runs like this. For 2026, Colorado applies a 10% reduction to your actual value, capped at $700,000, then taxes what is left at a 6.7% residential assessment ratio under SB24-233. Your county mill levy gets applied to that assessed value. Small percentage on a big number, and it adds up fast.
Here is the thing people forget. A property tax increase does not sit quietly in some annual statement. Most homeowners escrow. So when reassessment pushes your taxes up, your mortgage servicer recalculates your escrow and your monthly payment climbs. Your interest rate never moved. Your payment did anyway. That is a rough surprise to open in an envelope.
And the timing could not be tighter on carrying costs right now. DMAR's July data put the metro median close price around $605,000, up 2.95% year over year, with rates floating near 6.5%. On top of that, 62.9% of closed sales are now including seller concessions at a median of
Say you did not protest in the spring at all. You skipped the assessor window entirely. The next assessor-level appeal does not open until May 2027, which is a long wait. But you are not completely stuck. The abatement process can correct an erroneous valuation for up to two prior years, so if your number is genuinely wrong, there is still a path. It is just a slower one.
And if you do go through the CBOE and still lose? You have 30 days after their decision to push it further, to the state Board of Assessment Appeals, to binding arbitration, or to district court.
So look. If that Notice of Determination is sitting on your counter and you have been telling yourself you will deal with it later, later is September 15 in Jeffco and Boulder. Pull your comps from the July 2022 to June 30 2024 window. File the written appeal. Confirm your county's exact deadline first, because Denver's already passed.
Miss it, and that value is locked into your tax bills straight through 2027.