NEW ORLEANS — Property values are surging in Uptown New Orleans.
Some property owners complain their city tax assessments went up by more that 50-percent.
About 40,000 properties, largely in the Uptown area have been re-assessed in value.
They are among the 25-percent of homes and businesses in the city that didn’t get hit last year when the Orleans Parish Tax Assessor’s Office said it ran out of time.
Venus Masakowski owns a small apartment building on Magazine Street.
“My reaction was utter shock,” Masakowski said.
The tax assessment on her 3-plex went from about $331,000 to more than $501,000.
That’s an increase of nearly $170,000.
Masakowski said that could raise her property tax bill by more than $2,000.
“Here we are in a pandemic, Masakowski said. “I personally, like so many others in Louisiana, I’ve been unemployed since March. I had to let one of my renters out of their lease. I haven’t been able to rent it, so the government should be helping us, not socking us with higher property tax bills,”
Masakowski wants the city to freeze all property assessments until the economy rebounds.
Tax Assessor Erroll Williams said he can’t do that.
“I don’t have unilateral authority just to say I’m not going to raise the assessment,” Williams said. “If that’s the case, then I may be accused of malfeasance.”
State law requires properties be re-assessed at least every four years.
Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, Williams is asking anyone interested in appealing their assessments to do so online.
Many of the appeals are also being handled by teleconference.
“We set up 50 Zoom accounts for the appraiser staff and my customer service staff to be able to handle the homestead exemption, age freeze requests, appeals on assessments,” Williams said.
Back on Magazine Street, Masakowski is appealing her assessment.
“This does not reflect the post-pandemic market,” Masakowski said. “Maybe this reflected before when things were booming. We all thought tomorrow would never come, but it’s here and we’re in a recession, if not a depression.”
A reminder, if you plan to appeal your assessment, the tax rolls close on Monday, August 17. Again, because of the pandemic, you are urged to make your appeal online at nolaassessor.com.
If a property owner must meet with office staff in person. the assessor’s office has open rolls locations across the city.
Here are those locations:
- City Hall, 1300 Perdido, 4th Floor
- Algiers Courthouse, 225 Morgan Street, 1st Floor
- Lakeview Christian Center, 5885 Fleur De Lis Drive, 2nd Floor
- River Gardens, 1871 Rousseau Street
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