Salt Lake City — The Office of the State Auditor (Office) updated its Property Values Tool with new property values from 2024, as well as data from more counties. Taxpayers benefit as more assessors opt into providing their assessment data in a more public and usable manner.
The Property Values Tool was created last year due to taxpayer concerns and questions about inequitable valuation treatment. The tool allows taxpayers to see current and past property values as well as the percent change in year-over-year property values. This in turn helps taxpayers, policymakers, and regulators better understand property assessment in Utah. Ideally, the increase in available information will allow for increased transparency, more accountability, and greater trust in the property valuation process.
The tool employs a graphical map interface that allows users to browse through different properties that have available data, as well as a search feature to look up specific properties. The map is color-coded to show how much property values have changed—
· red denoting increase in property value, with greater increases shown by darker red;
· white denoting minimal change in value; and
· blue denoting decrease in property value, with greater decreases shown by darker blue.
State, federal, and tribal lands are also designated by orange, pink, and green respectively. Tax-exempt property parcels are marked in gray. Counties that have not provided data are highlighted in yellow.
Additionally, the layers feature in the top right corner of the map allows users to select different aspects of the map that they would like to be able to see, including property types, tax-exempt land, and Utah land ownership. The basemaps button, adjacent to the layers button, enables users to change the type of basemap being used, like satellite imagery, or topographical or terrain-based maps.
Users can type their address into the search tool in the top right corner and receive a pop-up specific to the individual property containing monetary values and the difference between years in dollars and percentages. Users can also scroll below the map to see the area around the searched property to compare surrounding land values and percentage increases.
State Auditor John Dougall stated, “The tool helps taxpayers oversee Utah’s property tax by simplifying access to property assessment data. This allows property owners and policymakers to understand changing property valuations, helping make the process more fair.”
Salt Lake County Assessor Chris Stavros added, “I passionately believe that this Property Values Tool is very beneficial to the residents of Salt Lake County as well as the residents across the State of Utah. The Property Values Tool elevates and establishes a higher standard for government agencies which helps ensure the best and highest level of services to the citizens. This tool, in addition to the transparency of our Assessor website, goes a long way towards ensuring that Assessors produce the most accurate, equitable, and uniform assessments for every category of real property in their respective counties.”
Deputy State Auditor Tina Cannon continued, “The Office of the State Auditor continues to provide invaluable support to property owners across Utah by offering an independent resource dedicated to helping them evaluate the effectiveness of the state’s property tax system. This initiative aims to help ensure that property assessments are both accurate and uniform, reflecting our commitment to fairness and transparency in the property tax valuation process.”
The Property Values Tool can be viewed at PropertyValues.utah.gov.
About the Office of the State Auditor
The Office of the State Auditor provides Utah taxpayers and government officials with an independent assessment of financial operation, statutory compliance, and performance management for state and local government.
Specific activities of the Office include performing financial audits, conducting Federal funds compliance audits, providing local government oversight, conducting agency and program performance audits, performing fraud and compliance audits, and operating the State Auditor Hotline for citizens to report suspected financial issues or improprieties. These capabilities strengthen Utah State Government and help taxpayers have confidence in the integrity of Utah’s government agencies.
The Office also provides interactive graphical tools to help taxpayers and policymakers gain greater insight into governmental financial activities. These tools include the Transparent Utah Public Finance website (transparent.utah.gov) as well as the award-winning Project KIDS public education analysis dashboards (auditor.utah.gov/kids).
The State Auditor is a Constitutional Officer of the State of Utah, elected directly by the state’s citizens every four years. The role of the State Auditor is authorized in Article VII, Section 15 of the Utah Constitution. For more information, see auditor.utah.gov.
Contact:
Mandy TeerlinkPublic Information OfficerOffice of the State Auditor425-330-1339mteerlink@utah.gov