Taxing Times: Circling back to St. Joseph County property assessments as new ones roll in

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- ABC57 News is circling back on St. Joseph County property tax assessments, after hearing outcry from thousands of county residents last year.

Some reported their assessment values doubled or even tripled from the year before.

Following that strife, County Assessor Mike Castellon told ABC57 there would be a county-wide average decrease of 4 percent for this year's assessments.

Property owners in St. Joseph County started seeing their assessments come in the mail just two weeks ago.

Anecdotally, it is certainly not the same outcry we saw last year.

Last year, we met the Andrews.

"It scares me because I’m afraid, she won’t be able to afford it," Harold Andrews told ABC57.

The value of the house they paid less than $30,000 for was assessed as nearly 75 percent more than that in 2025.

"If I wanted to sell this house today, I’d be out of my f-in’ mind to think I’d get $96,000," said Andrews.

They were one of the thousands of appeals in St. Joseph County.

"If we were to look at the amount of appeals that were filed this time last year, we had about 8,600," says Castellon. "As of Friday, we're sitting at 394."

A dramatic 95 percent decrease in appeals has been filed to the assessor's office since residents started receiving this year's assessments in the mail.

It's the makings of a record low according to Castellon, forecasting fewer than 1,500 appeals to be filed in total.

He says 86 percent of the county saw an overall decrease in assessment values.

"When the staff brought in the numbers, I was like 'You guys need to go back, that can't be right,'" recalls Castellon. "But we went through the numbers over and over again and the state finally approved them; we're in a great place."

He says a lot of the success has to do with the nearly 14,000 total appeals filed last year, helping to correct errors along with new strategies and technology being utilized to more accurately assess neighborhoods.

An example of this is the introduction of "submarkets" primarily for long-time homeowners in economic development hotspots like Notre Dame and New Carlisle so they aren't getting compared to new housing there.

"It's really about that open communication, then we were able to change how we assess, not from what the state prescribes us to do, but how we looked at their neighborhoods, and how the neighborhoods were set up," Castellon explains. "The old system we were using for our computer evaluation system didn't give us the ability to create those submarkets, just because simply it was outdated."

Castellon does warn that part of those improvements could have made land values increase in some assessments.

"The problem with the land in the past was they had influences for different types of lands like cul-de-sacs, corner lots, and I couldn't track exactly where those influences were coming from," Castellon says.

Now, it doesn't matter what type of lot you have; he says it's all about square footage.

The new assessments go by what Castellon calls the 20/80 rule.

"That means we're going to apply 20 percent of the overall value to the land and 80 percent to the improvement," explains Castellon. "The reason why we did that is because you don't have a whole lot of vacant land cells for us to derive the values we need to, or if we have cells, they're so far behind in years it's hard to get an understanding of what they would be worth in today's market."

ABC57 did a callout on social media asking St. Joseph County residents to show us their assessments.

Many reported decreases: as much as 10, 40, even $70,000.

There were also some that reported the same kind of increases we saw last year; claiming their assessed value doubled or increased by 40, or even $100,000.

Others saw drastic increases in their land value but a decrease in their structure value, or vice versa.

One comment said their five acres of swamp hunting property went from $14,900 last year to $57,700 this year.

"I don't know what would cause this forest to go up four times, but something has," says Steve Campiti, a St. Joseph County property owner.

Lifelong St. Joseph County resident Campiti bought a five-acre lot in a quaint neighborhood off Old US 31 for $9,000 in 2012.

He says all he uses it for is occasional hunting or a walk with the dog.

"We thought about building on it and there's a lot of hoops we couldn't cross, so we just enjoy it," says Campiti.

When he received his assessment in the mail and saw the 289 percent increase in land value, to say he was shocked is an understatement.

"Fourteen years I've owned it and done absolutely nothing to it," Campiti explains. "The house in Mishawaka that I own actually went down about ten percent, so I thought this will go down even more, but no, not the case."

Campiti filed an appeal right away and says he won't be happy until the assessed value goes back down to $14,900, which is what he says it's been for the last several years.

"My fear is that they bill me four times as much, then I'll appeal, and they'll say 'Alright, twice as much,' like I should be happy with that, and I'm not going to be," says Campiti.

Filing an appeal is the best thing to do if you feel something isn't right, like Campiti.

Though Castellon says it is important to remember he won't have control over every factor that plays into the assessment, he must follow state law.

"When I'm looking at fairness, where I have control is 'Is your land the same for everyone in your neighborhood?' 'Are we using the same techniques to assess your property?' 'Do we have the grades correct?'" Castellon says.

Learning from last year, appeals help accuracy.

As the assessor's office is on track to receive significantly fewer appeals this year, Castellon says that helps him and his team be even more attentive with each appeal and each property owner.

"This isn't you know just another governmental attempt to raise property taxes; it impacts them in a way that it could hurt people and that's why we took it very personal last year and why we worked so hard to make sure the taxpayers filed those appeals so we can make sure we get them as correct as we can," explains Castellon.

June 15 is the deadline to file an appeal.

Residents can do it in person by visiting the assessor's office at the County-City building, or it can be done online through their portal, which they recommend for a faster experience.

There is an assessor town hall scheduled for this coming Saturday, May 16, from 9-11a.m. at the St. Joseph County Public Library Leighton Auditorium at 304 S Main St. in South Bend.

ABC57 reached out to several property owners who reported a decrease in their assessments to be interviewed as part of this story, but they either declined or did not respond back in time for this story.