How are Florence, Omaha homes assessed for property tax?

Nebraska revalues every home as of January 1 at full market value, and Douglas County does it across more than 175,000 homes at once using recent sales and neighborhood patterns. Florence's older, more varied homes do not always fit that model, so individual values can land too high.

When can a Florence homeowner protest their valuation?

From June 1 to June 30 each year. Notices mail by June 1, a homeowner files a valuation protest by June 30, an independent referee reviews it, and the Board of Equalization decides by early August. There is no county filing fee.

How much can an over-assessment cost in Florence?

Effective rates near 1.7 percent of market value mean every $10,000 of value is roughly $170 a year. On an over-assessed Florence home that compounds, because Nebraska revalues annually and an uncontested value becomes the basis next year's number grows from.

Can someone file the Douglas County protest for me?

Yes. The county allows an owner-authorized agent to file and handle the protest. FairAppeal reviews the home, files the valuation protest if it makes sense, and manages it through the referee review and the Board of Equalization on the owner's behalf.

Florence, Omaha: The City's Oldest Homes and Their Taxes | FairAppeal

Florence is the oldest part of Omaha, full of 1800s homes a countywide valuation model misreads. Why those assessments run high, and what a protest does.

Florence feels like a small town Omaha grew around, which is roughly what happened. It is the oldest corner of the city, settled before Omaha existed, and many of its houses predate the data the county's valuation model leans on. That is how a Florence home gets assessed above what it would sell for.

What makes Florence the oldest part of Omaha?

Florence was settled in 1854 on the site of the Mormon Winter Quarters, where more than two thousand people camped on the way west in the 1840s. The 1856 Bank of Florence, a Greek Revival building on North 30th, is one of the oldest commercial buildings in Nebraska and now a museum. Walk a few blocks and you pass preserved Victorian homes like the Lantry-Thompson Mansion near 36th and State, on streets that have changed little in a century. The houses here are genuinely old, and that is the whole problem for a valuation model.

Florence, Omaha

Look up if you are overpaying on your Florence, Omaha home.

Why can a Florence assessment land too high?

A countywide reassessment values more than 175,000 homes at once, leaning on recent sales and broad neighborhood patterns. Florence breaks the pattern: its housing is older and more varied than the model assumes, so it can read a modest historic home as worth more than the market would pay. When that happens the assessment runs high, and the owner carries the extra tax every year until the value is challenged. At Omaha-metro rates near 1.7 percent of market value, even a modest overstatement quietly adds up, every year the value holds.

What can a Florence homeowner do about it?

Nebraska mails valuation notices by June 1, and a Florence owner has until June 30 to file. An independent referee reviews it and the Board of Equalization decides by early August, with no county filing fee. A Fair Appeal review is free, and FairAppeal handles the full property tax appeal on the owner's behalf; the fee, when it applies, is a percentage of first-year tax savings.