Property Reassessment
Public Information Meeting on Town-wide Property Reassessment, November 21st, 6:30pm. Click here for meeting recording
Reassessment New York State Department of Taxation and Finance - Town of Skaneateles Reassessment Overview Presentation
Reassessment Information Pamphlet
MuniPro- Find information about your Town
Why is the Town of Skaneateles doing a Town Wide Reassessment in 2025?
Municipal-wide reassessment is the best way to ensure that assessments are fair and accurate.
Reassessments ensure that you pay only your fair share of taxes. After several years without a
reassessment, some properties will be over-assessed, and some will be under-assessed. The Town of Skaneateles has not done a town-wide reassessment since 2015. As you may know, property
values in our Town have increased substantially, many properties have increased at a significantly greater rate than others. The town-wide reassessment includes all properties in the Town which includes all properties in the Village.
The NYS Department of Taxation and Finance indicates that after a reassessment, generally one third of the property owners will see an increase in taxes, one third will see a decrease in taxes, and one third will remain the same. Below is an example to illustrate. For more information go to NYS reassessments.
Market Value/taxes |
Property A |
Property B |
Property C |
Total taxes collected by the Town |
Market Value 10 years ago |
$100,000 |
$100,000 |
$100,000 |
|
Taxes Paid 10 years ago |
$2000 |
$2000 |
$2000 |
$6000 |
Current Market Value |
$300,000 |
$200,000 |
$100,000 |
|
Current Taxes being paid before re-assessment |
$2000 |
$2000 |
$2000 |
$6000 |
Taxes that should be paid with new reassessment using current market value |
$3000 |
$2000 |
$1000 |
$6000 |
As you can see, a reassessment does not affect the amount of taxes collected. It simply reapportions taxes fairly based on accurate property values. The Town’s budget will not be affected by the town-wide reassessment.
What Factors Does the Assessor Use to Determine Your Assessment?
There are three main factors that an assessor takes into consideration in determining your assessment. These are called approaches: Market Approach, Cost Approach, or Income Approach.
For residential properties in Skaneateles our assessor uses the Market Approach. The assessor will take into consideration recent sales for like-type properties. For instance, a property on the lake will only be compared to another property of like size and character that is also located on the lake. A home in the Village will only be compared to another home in the Village.
Mike Maxwell, our Town Assessor and lead on the 2025 Reassessment project said, “The Town of Skaneateles is unique because of the location factors being so different. The lake and the Village properties are the highest value areas. The rural portion of the Town in the Skaneateles School District is vastly different than the rural part in the other school districts (Marcellus, Elbridge, and Moravia.) This makes the valuation very difficult because all these factors come into play in a very complicated market. The same type of house in any one of these areas can be assessed thousands of dollars differently. I have broken up the Town in valuation NEIGHBORHOODS. These groups/neighborhoods each carry a different land value per acre, house value per square foot, etc. My goal is to be as fair and equitable as possible in assessing all properties in the Town of Skaneateles.”
In the fall of 2022, you received a mailer from the Town of Skaneateles, in partnership with GAR Associates, asking you to correct and update information on your property. This information was updated in our database, so the assessor has accurate information on which to base his assessment. An example of the some of the things you verified were: the number of bedrooms and bathrooms in your house, the square footage of your home, do you have a garage, do have a lake view or lake access, etc. All these factors and many more go into determining your assessment.
Also, all information received on any building permits for additions/enhancement to your property has been given to the Assessor from the Town Zoning/Planning Office and has been updated in the database.
Pictures were taken of most properties; however, they were taken either from the road in front of your residence or through satellite photographs.
Condos are assessed differently than residential properties, meaning that a condo owner’s assessment may be a fraction of what a single homeowner’s assessment is, even though they sell for the same price. This is all because of how the law requires condo assessments to be calculated.
If you want to learn more about the reassessment process please come to a public information session on Thursday, November 21st at Skaneateles Town Hall at 6:30 pm. This session will also be available via Zoom. The Zoom link will be on the Town website at townofskaneateles.com. If you have a specific question you would like answered please email: Mike Maxwell at mmaxwell@townofskaneateles.com.
*Some information in this article taken from TaxMyPropertyFairly.com