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.
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.