Due to reevaluations, Philly homeowners could see property tax hike of $330, mayor says

Mayor Cherelle Parker announced on Monday that, due to results of a citywide revaluation of all property values for Tax Year 2025, average homeowners throughout the city, that are signed up for the homestead exemption, will see their property tax increase by $330.

“No one ever wants to see their property taxes go up,” she said, during an event to announce the reevaluated property assessments. “But, unfortunately, that’s not what the law requires.”

The exact rate of the property tax increase will vary by property -- the evaluations reviewed more than 580,000 properties throughout the city, officials said -- but Parker said that the increases are tied to the new property tax evaluations that are required by law.

"Because of the reassessments, average residential property tax bills will go up by about $330 for homeowners signed up for the homestead exemption," Parker said, noting she wanted residents to hear it from her.

A benefit of these higher property tax assessment, Parker said, would be that because the city's budget allocates 56-percent of property tax revenues for public schools, Philly students will receive $240 million over the next five years.

Parker also noted that, in the recent budget, she and City Council increased the Homestead Exemption from $80,000 to $100,000.

In approving the city budget in June, officials said this will provide a savings of up to $280 on homeowners’ property taxes.

And, she said, the city has a number of financial assistance programs available and promised that city officials would be involved in an outreach campaign to help Philly homeowners access any services that they may be eligible for.

“As challenging as this moment can be, and we recognize that it can be challenging, we are going to make sure that we are communicating directly with every homeowner impacted by the valuations," Parker said.

She also encouraged property owners to enroll in newly expanded tax relief programs that could mitigate the impact of the valuations.

Yet, Parker noted, the increase shouldn't be considered a "new tax," as it was instead an increase tied to property tax reevaluations that were required by law.

“There were no tax rate increases in the proposed or adopted budget," said the mayor.

Officials said, in an afternoon update that valuation notices will be sent to homeowners beginning on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, and updated values for individual properties will appear on property.phila.gov at about the same time.

The new values, officials said, will take effect on Wednesday, January 1, 2025, and affect tax bills in 2025.

And, officials said, real estate tax is due Monday, March 31, 2025.

Last year, the city paused property tax assessments after bringing them back following that three-year break.

Many property owners were surprised, at that time, as values had risen by 31-percent across the city and a quarter of city homeowners saw their values double.

This reportedly caused a flood of appeals to the city's Property Tax Assessment office, which tied up the agency's ability to conduct new assessments.