Denver Property Tax Bills Are Rising in 2026. That Is a Listing Conversation.

Jerad Larkin
45 minutes ago
8 min read

A Denver homeowner called their loan servicer last week because the mortgage payment jumped about $180 a month. The rate did not change. The loan did not change. The escrow account did.

That phone call is happening all over the Denver Metro right now, and most of those homeowners are calling the wrong person. The person who should be explaining it is the agent who sold them the house.

Why are Denver property tax bills going up in 2026 when home values did not?

Denver property tax bills are rising in 2026 because Colorado is phasing in higher permanent assessment rates while local mill levies keep climbing, so bills grow even when a Denver Metro home's assessed value stays flat.

I am Jerad Larkin, Sales Executive with Chicago Title Colorado, and I spend most of my week sitting across from Denver Metro agents talking about where the next listing comes from. Right now, a lot of them are sitting in a stack of unopened mail.

I am not a tax advisor, and neither are you. You do not have to be. You just have to be the first person who explains what happened in plain English. That is a much lower bar than most agents think, and a much bigger opportunity than most agents use.

What Actually Changed With Colorado Property Taxes in 2026?

Colorado has spent the last several years replacing the Gallagher Amendment with a fixed schedule of assessment rates. Senate Bill 24-233 set most of that schedule, and it phases in across multiple tax years instead of landing all at once. That phase-in is why bills keep moving in years when nothing about the property itself changed.

The Assessment Rate Is Doing the Work Now, Not Your Client's Value

Colorado splits the residential rate. For the 2026 tax year, the school district portion of a home is assessed at 7.05 percent of actual value. The local government portion is assessed at a lower rate, in the low-to-mid six percent range, after a value exemption equal to 10 percent of actual value capped at $70,000. The Bell Policy Center's breakdown walks through how that exemption works. Your county assessor publishes the exact figures for each taxing district, and it is worth pulling those before you quote a number to a client.

The practical result is what CPR News reported earlier this year. Colorado homeowners opened bills that were higher than the year before, in some cases meaningfully higher, without the underlying value moving. The rate schedule stepped up, mill levies moved underneath it, and the bill followed.

Why Is 2026 an Intervening Year, and What Does That Lock In?

Colorado revalues residential property in odd-numbered years. 2025 was the reassessment. 2027 is the next one. In an intervening year like 2026, most homeowners will not receive a new Notice of Valuation at all, and there is no general protest window. Notices go out by May 1 and the objection period closes June 8 in reassessment years, which county assessor appeal notices spell out every cycle.

That changes your script. When a Denver homeowner says they want to fight this, the honest answer is that the value they can fight is the 2027 value, and the documentation for that argument gets collected now, not the week the notice arrives.

Why Is This a Listing Conversation and Not a Tax Lecture?

The Escrow Shortage Letter Is a Trigger Event

Homeowners with an impound account do not experience a tax increase as a tax increase. They experience it as a letter from their servicer with two numbers on it. A lump sum shortage they owe now, and a higher monthly payment going forward. For most Denver Metro borrowers that letter shows up after the annual escrow analysis, and it is the first moment the increase feels real.

Treat it like any other trigger event. A job change, a new baby, an empty nest. Somebody in that household just opened a piece of mail and started doing math about whether this house still works. That is a conversation, and you want to be in it.

Who Does This Hit Hardest Across the Denver Metro?

Three groups feel this more than everyone else. First, long-time owners in appreciated Denver neighborhoods who bought years ago and carry a small remaining balance, where taxes and insurance are now most of the payment. Second, condo and townhome owners who already absorbed HOA increases, in a segment where Denver Metro attached inventory is running near twice the supply of detached homes. Third, owners over 65 on a fixed income, where Colorado's senior homestead exemption carries an occupancy requirement that many people either do not know about or are about to give up by moving, which is exactly the conversation behind the 55-plus seller niche.

How Do Denver Agents Turn the 2026 Tax Increase Into Outreach?

Build the List Before You Write the Message

Start with the people you already have a relationship with. Past clients, your sphere, and your farm. Then layer ownership and tax data on top so you are working from records instead of guesses. Part of what I do as a Sales Executive at Chicago Title Colorado is get Denver Metro agents that property data, including owner of record, purchase date, and assessed value, so the outreach lands specific instead of generic.

What Does the Three-Touch Sequence Look Like?

Touch one is an email to your whole database with a subject line that names the thing. Something like: Your 2026 Colorado property tax bill, explained in 90 seconds. No listing pitch anywhere in it. Just the explanation and an offer to run their numbers.

Touch two is a 60-second vertical video. You on camera, one point only: values did not change, rates did, here is what that does to your payment. Post it, then send it directly to the 30 people in your database most likely to be affected.

Touch three is a phone call or a text to the highest-probability names on that list. If you are texting a database, read the TCPA rules on texting your database first, because the consent requirements are stricter than most Colorado agents assume and the penalties are assessed per message.

A printed piece works here too. One postcard into your farm that says property taxes went up and explains why, with your name on it, gets kept in a way that a market-stats postcard never does.

What Should You Actually Say?

Here is the version I would use, and you should make it sound like you: Hey, quick heads up. A lot of Denver Metro homeowners are seeing their payment jump this year because of how Colorado phases in property tax rates, not because their home value changed. If your escrow letter caught you off guard, send me your address and I will pull your tax history and tell you exactly what happened. No strings.

That last line matters. You are offering a piece of research, not a listing appointment. Some of those conversations turn into a sale this year. Most turn into the reason they call you in two years, which is the entire point of staying in front of a database.

What Should Denver Buyers Be Told Before They Write an Offer?

Ask the lender to underwrite the payment using current-year tax figures for that specific taxing district, not last year's number off the listing sheet. Two homes at the same price in the same Denver zip code can carry very different bills depending on the school district, the special districts, and any metro district overlay.

Metro districts are the one that surprises people. A newer subdivision on the edge of the Denver Metro can carry an extra mill levy that adds real money to the monthly payment, and the buyer usually finds out at closing instead of at the showing. Bring it up early. It also belongs in how you present numbers at your listing appointment, because a seller who understands the buyer's payment math prices better.

Denver's median close price sat near $605,000 heading into late summer according to the DMAR Market Trends report, with rates hovering around six and a half percent. At those numbers, a few hundred dollars a year of tax movement is not academic. It changes what a buyer qualifies for.

How Do You Prepare a Client for the 2027 Protest Window?

The next general Notice of Valuation goes out by May 1, 2027, and the objection deadline is June 8, 2027. That is a hard statutory date. Colorado does not extend it because someone was on vacation.

Tell your Colorado clients to build a file between now and then. Photos of deferred maintenance and condition issues. Written bids for repairs. Closed sales of genuinely comparable homes in the neighborhood, which you can pull for them in about ten minutes. A property that looks strong on paper because the assessor never saw the foundation crack is exactly the case worth making.

One more thing worth checking on any listing you take. Unpaid property taxes attach to the property, not the person. They show up in the title work, and they are one of the items a pre-listing title check catches before it becomes a closing-week emergency.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did my Colorado property tax bill go up if my home value stayed the same?

Because the assessment rate and the mill levy both move the bill independently of value. Colorado is phasing in a permanent rate schedule under SB24-233, and local taxing districts set their own mill levies each year. Either one can push a Denver Metro bill higher while the assessed value sits still.

Can Denver homeowners appeal their property taxes in 2026?

Generally no. 2026 is an intervening year in Colorado's two-year reassessment cycle, so most owners will not receive a new Notice of Valuation and the general protest window is not open. Owners with an unusual condition such as new construction, a demolition, a replat, or a change in use may receive a notice and can object. The next general window runs May 1 to June 8, 2027.

How should Denver real estate agents explain property taxes to buyers?

Show the actual taxing district for that specific address rather than a metro average, and have the lender underwrite the payment on current-year figures. Point out any metro district or special district levy up front. Buyers do not resent a higher number when they learn it early. They resent finding it at closing.

Is a property tax increase a good reason to reach out to past clients in Denver?

Yes, and it is one of the better reasons available this year. It is timely, it touches nearly every homeowner in the Denver Metro, and it gives you a call that is genuinely useful instead of a thinly disguised listing pitch. Lead with the explanation and an offer to pull their tax history.

How long does it take to see results from this kind of outreach?

Expect conversations in days and transactions in months. A database campaign built on a timely explanation usually produces a handful of live conversations in the first week and listing appointments over the following quarter. The compounding value is that you become the person in your part of the Denver Metro who explains things.

If you want the tax history, ownership records, or a farm list for the neighborhood you are working, that is what I do all day. Head to milehightitleguy.com for the tools, market data, and the classes I teach around the Denver Metro, or reach out and I will pull the numbers on whatever address you are looking at.

Jerad Larkin

Sales Executive | Chicago Title Colorado

milehightitleguy.com

My Blog