Are Wyandotte County property values cooling off? Fewer owners appeal assessments
Despite consistently soaring property values, fewer home and business owners in Wyandotte County protested the county’s valuation of their properties — which affects how much they pay in taxes — this year than they did last year. According to the county appraiser’s office, owners filed 40% fewer appeals this spring than last, when the number of appeals peaked.
The drop in appeals comes after Wyandotte County officials moved to freeze property taxes last year in response to residents’ pleas for relief on their rising bills, and at a time when property values seem to be cooling off slightly. While values are continuing to rise across the county, they are doing so at a seemingly slower rate than the spikes owners have seen in recent years, according to the county appraiser’s office.
The appraiser’s office, which calculates the market value for residential and commercial properties in the county, mailed out initial estimations in February and March. Residents and business owners had until March 29 and April 9, respectively, to file an appeal that indicated they disagreed with the office’s assessment of their properties.
The office will reach out to applicants in coming weeks to set up informal hearings during which home and business owners may provide evidence proving the county set their property values too high. It will issue final decisions in May.
High property values, although beneficial to people that successfully sell their property, can bury others in debt — especially when that growth is rapid.
Taxing entities, like the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, the county public library and local school systems, collect property tax revenues by applying their respective tax rates to a property’s value. The higher a property’s value is, the more taxing entities may collect from that given property.
Protests in Wyandotte County have largely correlated with rising property values that have consistently climbed for a decade. The median value of a single residential parcel was $74,100 in 2017; that value grew to $94,905 by 2020 and $181,600 in 2025. County data show that the rate at which real estate values are increasing, although rapid in recent years, slowed down during 2024.
The median inflation rate for a Wyandotte County home between 2023 and 2024 was 10%, according to the appraiser’s office. That number dropped to 5% over 2024 and into 2025, meaning that although homes are worth more now than they were a year ago, the median rate values are increasing by has slowed down.
On the commercial side, the median inflation rate for 2024 was 14% and slowed to 9.5%, according to the county.
The appraiser’s office monitors market sales and prices when assessing properties in the county. Slower inflation stems partially from slower growth in the real estate market, Willard said, adding he anticipates slow growth to continue in the years ahead. He said he was unsure whether values will soon plateau amid uncertainty in the market and elsewhere.
Protests
As of Friday, the Wyandotte County Appraiser’s Office had 2,069 protests up for consideration. Of those, 1,712 properties were designated as residential and 357 were commercial. One-hundred and thirteen applicants owned 1,248, or about 60%, of the properties in dispute.
The appraiser’s office said property owners with several lots under protest often owned subdivisions and vacant land in the county. Protests are filed separately by lot, not property owner.
Matthew Willard, the lead appraiser for Wyandotte County, said his office has seen more disputes, and higher values, predominantly on the county’s west side amid new developments and expansion into areas with more land availability.
The appraiser’s office saw a decade-high number of protests in 2024 when owners of 3,316 properties in Wyandotte disputed their valuations. Protests in 2024 were 112% higher than they were in 2015 and 108% higher than in 2020, signaling a growing disconnect between what people believe their residential and commercial properties equate to and what the county appraises properties at.
Willard attributed the 2025 decline in protests in part to slowing inflation rates and the high number of protests filed in 2024. His office encountered several first-time protesters in 2024 that successfully appealed their valuations and potentially didn’t see a need to do so for a second consecutive year, he said.
He wants people who feel their home or business property values are too high to seek an appeal without fear of an immediate increase or intimidation. If the county finds a property has increased in value during the appeals process, that new value won’t be reflected on tax bills until the following year, Willard said.
“That’s meant to be a non-adversarial, I’ll say friendly, process as much as it can be,” he said. “I don’t want people to be intimidated by it.”
People seeking relief may be eligible for the county’s rebate program or a state homestead exemption. Visit the Wyandotte County Appraiser’s Office or the Kansas Department of Revenue’s website for additional information.
