Susan Murphy fields these calls all year now. As the assessor in Elbert County and president of the Colorado Assessors' Association, she spent early 2026 explaining the same confusion to homeowner after homeowner: "Property owners are getting their tax notices and wondering why perhaps their value may have gone down, but their taxes have gone up."
That confusion has landed in Lakewood too. Jefferson County Treasurer Jerry DiTullio said the changes drove 15 to 20 percent property tax hikes for most county residents this year, and statewide reporting has documented increases running as high as 40 percent in some Colorado counties. The homes themselves mostly didn't change. The math behind the bill did.
If you're buying or selling in Lakewood this fall, that distinction isn't a policy footnote. It's the reason a buyer's estimated monthly payment can be off by a few hundred dollars, the reason a seller might field a question at the negotiating table they didn't see coming, and the reason a deal that felt settled at inspection can wobble again once someone actually pulls up the Jefferson County Treasurer's tax portal.
The rate changed, not the value
Colorado ran a temporary discount on residential property taxes for tax year 2024, the bill Lakewood owners paid in 2025. That discount pushed the blended assessment rate down to 6.7 percent, the lowest in modern Colorado history. It expired on schedule, and the bill that just finished going out in installments through this year, for tax year 2025, landed with a new structure: a 7.05 percent rate for the school district portion and a 6.25 percent rate for everything else local governments collect.
| Tax year | Bill paid | School rate | Local government rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2025 | 6.7% (temporary blended rate) | 6.7% (temporary blended rate) |
| 2025 | 2026 (just completed) | 7.05% | 6.25% |
| 2026 | 2027 (not yet billed) | 7.05% | 6.8%, minus 10% of the first $700,000 in value |
School taxes are usually the largest single piece of a Colorado property tax bill, so the jump from 6.7 to 7.05 percent on that line alone accounts for most of what homeowners felt this year. The next bill, for tax year 2026, introduces a further adjustment on the local government side: a 10 percent reduction on the first $700,000 of a home's value. That softens things for a typical Lakewood home, but the benefit caps out at $700,000, so it does less for higher-value properties, and it hasn't shown up in anyone's mailbox yet.
Layer on whatever mill levies the specific school, fire, library, or metro district covering an address has passed, and you get a bill that moves independent of what the house itself is worth.
What that looks like inside Jefferson County
DiTullio's office fielded enough confused calls this year that he felt the need to clarify who was actually responsible for the increase. Jefferson County Assessor Scot Kersgaard explained that the county had split what used to be one assessment rate into two, one for schools and one for everything else. A notice on the county's own website put the consequence bluntly: a single assessed value no longer accurately represents how taxes get calculated on a residential parcel.
DiTullio also flagged something worth repeating to anyone closing on a Lakewood home this season: "Some of them think it's the county treasurer that's raising their taxes since that's who sent the statement." It isn't the treasurer's call. The treasurer's office bills and collects. The rate is set by the state legislature and by whichever local taxing districts, school, fire, library, metro, cover a given address, and those districts vary block by block in Lakewood.
That variation shows up in current Jefferson County property tax records for Lakewood. A home in the 80232 zip code carries a median annual bill around $2,731, while a home in 80235 runs closer to $4,519. Same city, different taxing districts stacked on the parcel, different bill. The citywide median for Lakewood sits near $3,020 a year on a median home value around $567,552, but that median hides a real spread: the 25th percentile bill is about $2,212, the 75th percentile is about $3,747, and the 90th percentile reaches $4,758.
For a buyer comparing two similarly priced Lakewood homes, that spread can be the difference between a comfortable payment and a tight one, and it has nothing to do with square footage.
What this means if you're selling this fall
A seller's instinct is to let the listing's automated tax estimate speak for itself. That estimate is often still showing the tax year 2024 amount, the one built on the old 6.7 percent blended rate, because aggregators tend to lag behind the county's own records by a full cycle. If a buyer's agent or lender uses that older figure to estimate a mortgage payment, the real number from the tax year 2025 bill can land well above it, and that gap tends to surface after an accepted offer, not before.
The fix is simple and worth doing before you list: pull your actual current tax amount directly from the county treasurer's site and put the real number in your listing remarks or disclosure packet. It's a small step that heads off a renegotiation conversation two weeks before closing. Our Lakewood pricing guide walks through how comps and carrying costs factor into a realistic list price, and the tax line belongs in that conversation now more than it did two years ago.
Proration matters here too. Jefferson County lets owners pay the full year by April 30 or split it into two installments, the first due in early March and the second by mid-June. Whichever schedule the seller was on, the closing statement needs to reflect the actual amount paid and owed for the year, not an assumption based on last year's bill. Get this wrong and it shows up as a credit dispute at the closing table.
What this means if you're buying this fall
A few things worth doing before you fall in love with a monthly payment number:
- Ask your lender to run your estimated escrow off the current-year tax bill for the specific address, not a countywide average or a prior-year figure pulled automatically.
- Confirm which taxing districts apply to that exact parcel. Two homes a few blocks apart in Lakewood can sit in different school, fire, or metro district boundaries, and that changes the bill even at identical home values.
- Ask whether the seller protested their valuation this spring and what the outcome was. If a protest is still working through the Board of Equalization, the resolution will affect the value you inherit for the tax year 2026 bill, due in 2027.
- Budget for an escrow cushion. Lenders typically collect a buffer on top of the monthly 1/12th tax estimate, and if that estimate was set low, you may see a shortfall notice within your first year of ownership.
None of this is a reason to walk away from a Lakewood purchase. It's a reason to ask for the actual number instead of the estimated one.
The eight days left on the clock
The rate is set by the legislature and isn't something a homeowner can appeal. The underlying value of the home is, and that clock is still running for the bill that hasn't been mailed yet. If you protested your valuation with the Jefferson County Assessor back in May or June of this year and received a determination you disagreed with, the window to escalate that fight to the County Board of Equalization closes September 15, 2026. That board has to conclude its hearings by November 1 and notify you of a decision within five business days after that.
Winning that appeal wouldn't change the bill you already paid this year. It would change the value carried into the tax year 2026 bill, the one coming in 2027 with the new local government rate. If you didn't file a protest in the regular May 1 to June 8 window, this particular appeal path isn't open to you right now. What you can still do is document the current, accurate number for any Lakewood transaction happening this fall, and plan to protest next spring if the value still looks off.
A couple of questions that come up often
Will next year's reassessment make this better or worse? Colorado reassesses property every odd-numbered year. The 2025 reassessment set values that apply to both the 2025 tax year and the 2026 tax year, since 2026 is what the county calls an intervening year. The next full reassessment, using a new appraisal date, happens in 2027. So the value driving your current bill won't change again until then, though rates and mill levies can still move in the meantime.
What if I missed the spring appeal window entirely? The formal protest period has closed for this tax year. Jefferson County allows a separate abatement request for the current tax year, but that process doesn't open until after January 1, 2027, and it moves slower than a standard appeal.
The bottom line
The obvious story is that Lakewood home values went up, so tax bills went up. The real story this year is that the rate changed underneath everyone at the same time, and the bill can move even when the home doesn't. If you're negotiating a Lakewood sale or purchase this fall, the number that matters is the one sitting in the county treasurer's system today, not the one an aggregator estimated last spring.
If you want a second set of eyes on what a specific Lakewood address is actually carrying in taxes before you list or make an offer, reach out to Michael Todd. Call or text to schedule a free consultation, and bring the address. We'll pull the real number together.
