John Franklin doesn’t think his home’s value increased by $20,000.

That’s why he went to the El Paso County Assessor’s Office on Monday, the final day to appeal property values determined in the 2008 reappraisal.

“It was a little more than I expected,” said the retired assistant county attorney who was filing his first appeal. He said the assessor’s office erroneously used a property to determine his home’s value that was superior to his.

Franklin was nearly alone at the front counter, not much different than throughout the May appeal period.

A surprisingly low number of property owners disagreed with the assessor on their property values, roughly 6,700, about the same number who appealed in 2005 and 2007.

“It turned out to be a typical year, which I can’t believe,” said Assessor Mark Lowderman.

He expected more, because he figured people wouldn’t realize the reappraisal was based on sales between Jan. 1, 2007, and June 30, 2008. The local real estate market has taken a dive since mid-2008, values during the reappraisal period were stable or dipped only slightly.

During the 18-month reappraisal period, the assessor found that vacant land went up, on average, 7.8 percent; residential, 4.5 percent; commercial, 10.5 percent, and industrial, 8.1 percent. Only agricultural land declined by 0.08 of a percent.

“I thought the perception of the taxpayers was that property values were declining, and we would have a problem with the base-year concept,” Lowderman said.

He said the phones have been busy, but many people don’t appeal after the state-mandated reappraisal period is explained.

Lowderman said another factor keeping appeals low might be his office printing the current tax bill and the future tax bill based on current taxing rates on the notice of value.

In some cases, an increase in value might translate to only a few dollars more in taxes, he said.

Lowderman’s office will process the appeals, most of which he expects are by homeowners, during the next month.

If those who appealed aren’t happy with the assessor’s ruling, they may appeal to the Board of Adjustment by July 15. Instructions are printed on the notices of determination to be mailed to those who appealed.

Historically, only 5 percent of appeal rulings are challenged.

–

Call the writer at 636-0238

A driver handed his passport to a border agent at the U.S. border crossing in Highgate Springs, Vt., today. Vehicle and pedestrian traffic moved smoothly on both U.S. international borders on the first day of stricter identification requirements for Amer Photo by The Associated Press