Annual statistic indicates Luzerne County assessed values still accurate

Seventeen years after the last reassessment, Luzerne County’s assessed values still remain accurate on the whole, according to an annual state statistic.

The State Tax Equalization Board’s yearly “common level ratio” compares prior-year real estate purchase prices to the assessed values in each county.

An ideal ratio is 100, which means purchase prices are closely mirroring assessments.

Ratios below that score indicate more real estate purchases are above assessments — a sign of underassessment. The opposite — overassessment — is likely as scores surpass 100.

The county’s new ratio is 87.4, which is the second closest to 100 among all 67 counties, the board’s new report shows.

Philadelphia, which reassessed in 2024, is the only county with a better ratio — 94.3.

The last countywide reassessment here took effect in 2009 and had been the first mass revaluation since 1965.

While many of Luzerne County’s current assessed values have remained unchanged since the reassessment, thousands have been adjusted, usually lower, through assessment challenges.

Outside of changes resulting from assessment challenges, counties cannot alter the assessed values of individual properties unless a structure is torn down or added due to a ban on spot assessing not part of a countywide reassessment.

Monitoring is necessary to determine if another countywide reassessment is warranted, and the county administration has emphasized there are no plans to proceed with a mass revaluation at this time.

Higher real estate purchase prices had dropped the county’s ratio to 69.4 in 2023, but it subsequently rebounded to 86.8 in 2024 and about the same — 86.2 — in 2025. The new ratio of 87.4 is further improvement.

The county’s ratio had a different trajectory from 2011 through 2019, when it exceeded 100, records show.

State law requires the State Tax Equalization Board to use “statistically acceptable techniques” to calculate the ratio based on validated sales it collects from county assessment offices.

In Luzerne County, 922 property sales were used as a basis for the latest ratio, according to the report at dced.pa.gov.

County Chief Assessor/Assessment Director Kristin Montgomery has said she strives for accuracy in data forwarded to the state by personally reviewing all sales to ensure they are arm’s length transactions and adhering to a validation procedure that ensures inclusion of as many sales as possible.

While the ratio provides an average for the county as a whole, there may be neighborhoods or regions within the county that have greater deviations from the perfect ratio score, she has said.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo said Wednesday the county is “fortunate to have a team of dedicated professionals” in the Assessment Office who “consistently demonstrate a commitment to accuracy, transparency, and excellence in public service.”

“Kristin brings a deep and commanding knowledge of assessment practice to this office, and it shows in the results,” Crocamo said in reference to Montgomery. “Her leadership, combined with a team that takes its responsibilities seriously, continues to benefit every property owner and taxing body that depends on the integrity of our assessed values.”

The common level ratio is a “meaningful and measurable benchmark of assessment quality,” Crocamo said.

“What makes this achievement even more noteworthy is that our CLR has improved from the previous year, demonstrating that this office is not standing still, but actively working to get better,” she said.

Accurate assessments are the “foundation of a fair and equitable tax system,” Crocamo said.

“When property values are assessed with precision and professionalism, it builds public trust and ensures that every taxpayer is treated justly,” she said. “The Assessment Office is delivering on that promise.”