Homeowners in the City of Gunnison can expect to see a significant increase in their property taxes when they receive their 2025 tax bills next January. According to Gunnison County Assessor Alexandra Cohen, taxes on a typical residential property in the city are expected to increase by 30% over the prior year.
The reasons for this are twofold, Cohen said. First, 2025 was a reappraisal year. During each odd-numbered year, the Assessor’s Office revalues all property in the county to reflect changes in the real estate market since the previous reappraisal. The value the assessor places on each property is called its actual value, she said.
Most parts of the county experienced minimal change in value between the 2023 and 2025 reappraisals. But residential property in and around the City of Gunnison was an exception, Cohen said. It increased by an average of 17%, taking the median actual value of a single family home in the area from $470,000 to $550,000.
The second factor contributing to increased taxes is a recent major overhaul of statewide property tax laws. Last year, the legislature enacted significant changes to the way assessed values will be calculated for 2025, several of which will impact residential property in particular.
Traditionally, assessors have multiplied each residential property’s actual value by a single assessment rate to calculate its assessed value. The rate used in 2024 was 6.70%. Now, for 2025, assessors must apply two different assessment rates. To derive the assessed value that will be used for school district taxes, the rate is 7.05%. For all other taxing entities, the rate is 6.25%.
In 2024 assessors also applied a statutory $55,000 reduction to the actual value of each residential property before calculating its assessed value, Cohen said. That reduction was temporary and is gone for 2025.
As a result of these changes, a home with a current actual value of $550,000 will have an assessed value of $38,780 for the school district, and $34,380 for all other taxing entities, Cohen said. Based on a prior actual value of $470,000, the same property would have been assessed at $27,810 in 2024.
Home owners pay property tax to entities that serve their property (county, city, school district, etc.). The amount payable to each entity is equal to the appropriate assessed value multiplied by the entity’s mill levy, divided by 1000, Cohen said. Entities will not finalize their 2025 levies — the amount of their allowed levy they actually claim — until mid-December, but in previous reappraisal years aggregate mill levies have dropped slightly.
Combining all these variables, the Assessor’s Office expects property taxes on homes in the City of Gunnison to rise significantly for 2025, Cohen said. Individual changes will vary depending on the prior and current year actual value of each property. But for a typical home whose value has increased from $470,000 to $550,000 the changes would translate to an estimated tax bill of $1,860, an increase of $430 — over the previous year, she said.
None of these estimates accounts for the potential impact of any new levies. If voters in the city approve an additional 12.5 mills, the overall increase in residential property taxes would be significantly greater, Cohen said. Under that scenario, the same typical home would see estimated taxes of $2,290, or a 60% increase over 2024.
(William Spicer is a former Gunnison County Assessor’s Office employee.)
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