Cathy Cebul-Yansen had expected the assessed value of her Highland Park Neighborhood home to increase this year.
She and her husband Andrew purchased their 2,100-square-foot home on Furness Crescent in 2017 for $209,000 — a figure that aligns with the house's current assessed value of $208,400. That figure remained the same in the previous full reassessment in 2020.
Key dates to challenge your city assessment
- Thursday, Feb. 8: Workshop on city assessment process hosted by City Councilman Willie Lightfoot, 7 p.m. at Prayer House Church of God By Faith, 270 Cumberland St.
- Friday, Feb. 9: Deadline to call in and request an informal review. Phone: (585) 428-7221
- March 1: Last day to appeal to city’s Board of Assessment Review
But under its preliminary 2024 assessment, the valuation more than doubled to $425,000. With the higher assessment came a projected $1,118 increase in her property tax bill.
“I thought that was a pretty big jump,” Cebul-Yansen said. “I was definitely OK with it increasing. I know that the sales of houses have gone up, and I understand that taxes need to be shared by homeowners in the city ... but talking to neighbors on our street, our house went up substantially more than anyone else’s.”
Cebul-Yansen is one of many city homeowners whose new assessments have given them sticker shock. Across Rochester, preliminary residential property assessments rose an average of 68.4%, adding $3.2 billion to the city’s tax base.
None of the 132 neighborhoods assessed by the city saw a decrease in assessed single-family home values.
The area surrounding North Goodman Street in the Beechwood neighborhood experienced the largest spikes. Residential assessments rose 137%, with the average home value leaping from $47,904 to $113,447.
The high-valued lakeside homes at the northern tip of Charlotte have increased at the lowest rate. There, the average assessments rose to $255,188 from $217,897, a 17% increase.
Home assessments are largely based on recent home sales in the neighborhood. City Assessor Mike Zazzara said the city began seeing significant increases in those prices in 2018.
“When that market really started to turn in 2018 and 2019, people really did think it was an anomaly,” Zazzara said. “But since that time, we’ve seen sale prices just increase and grow.
"It’s been pretty stable for the past year or two with those higher prices ... so that really has become the market.”
The rising values didn’t translate into much of a jump in the 2020 reassessment, which rose a modest 19.3% citywide.
At the time, the South Wedge and Upper Falls neighborhoods received the highest increases. This year, the city’s northeast side saw the largest rate of growth in assessed home values.
Areas with the largest increases by percentage
- Beechwood (Garson Avenue and Webster Avenue), 137%
- Beechwood (North Goodman Street and Webster Avenue), 130%
- South Marketview Heights (East Main Street and North Union Street), 129%
- North Marketview Heights (Portland Avenue and Bay Street), 117%
- Atlantic-University (Atlantic Avenue and Culver Road), 115%
Areas with the largest increases by average dollar change
- Park Avenue (Culver Road and Park Avenue), $187,177
- Cobbs Hill (South Winton Road), $182,622
- Browncroft (North Winton Road and Browncroft Boulevard), $156,453
- Park Avenue (South Goodman Street and Park Avenue), $148,883
- Atlantic-University (East Main Street and University Avenue), $148,063
For most Rochester homeowners who saw a significant spike in home assessments this year, the new value likely wasn’t too much of a surprise. Rochester home sale prices have increased significantly — 69% since 2018, city records show — and the city along with the surrounding region regularly has been ranked among the nation’s hottest real estate markets.
Look ahead: Rochester ranks #3 in forecast for 2024 top housing markets
Deputy City Assessor Enza Mineo said that while the increases in home sales have gone up, there are also shifts in where people are buying due to a shortage in housing stock. She pointed to rising home values in Beechwood as a prime example of a neighborhood experiencing an influx of new buyers due to its affordability and stock of homes. But that interest is driving up property values.
“We are in a weird place,” Mineo said. “The housing supply is very low, so what happens is you have very much affordable housing in the city...(where you can) buy a home and pay less than rent, that’s an affordable neighborhood. That’s something that people look for.”
Rochester’s rising home values mirror national trends, Mineo said.
The average home sale price nationwide increased from $384,000 at the end of 2018 to $492,300 last year 2023, or about 28%, according to data from the Federal Reserve. The highest home sale prices ever recorded were seen in late 2022, when the average U.S. house sold for $552,600.
Even when adjusted for inflation, the average price of a house in Rochester doesn’t come close to that figure.
“We’re still one of the more affordable cities, I have to tell you,” Mineo said. “If you look around, you can see that you can still buy a home in Rochester for under $100,000.”
Mineo and Zazzara both contended that the increases in assessments will likely continue. But they don’t expect more triple-digit percentage jumps like those seen in this year’s reassessment.
Zazzara described the climbing home values as a new reality for Rochester, driven by young buyers, transplants, inflation, and changing neighborhood dynamics.
“It will be single digits,” Zazzara said. “And we’re seeing that now. But will it be 1%, 5%, 9%, what’s it going to wind up? We just don’t know.”
Cebul-Yansen, the owner of the home on Furman Crescent, is appealing her assessment — adding to what city officials expect to be more than 3,000 challenges. The last day for homeowners to appeal is March 1. The last day to call in for an informal review is Friday.
She said she’s not expecting much to change in her assessment, but still is grappling with the spike in her home’s value.
“I’m totally fine with the value of our house increasing,” she said. “If we were to sell, I think we could get 300 or 325 (thousand). But 425, that seems like a much bigger house in the Park Avenue neighborhood to me.”
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