RF-AI Real Estate Data
The cheaper the house, the harder the assessment hits.
We pulled every one of Hamilton County’s 420,246 parcels and tested the assessment roll against the prices homes actually sold for. Houses in the bottom fifth of the market are assessed at 93.6% of their sale price. Houses in the top fifth are assessed at 77.1%. Same roll, same county, same year.
26,101 arms-length sales · 104 neighbourhoods · county data verified 16 September 2026
A gap of sixteen percentage points, by price.
An assessment ratio is the county’s market value divided by what a property actually sold for. If the roll were even this line would be flat — every home assessed at the same share of its worth, whatever that worth happens to be. It is not flat. It spikes at the bottom of the market and settles everywhere else.
| Sale-price band | Sales | Median ratio | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| <100k | 1,958 | 128% | 91%–189% |
| 100-150k | 2,531 | 87% | 70%–107% |
| 150-200k | 3,909 | 76% | 65%–89% |
| 200-250k | 4,704 | 73% | 63%–83% |
| 250-300k | 3,522 | 74% | 64%–84% |
| 300-400k | 3,950 | 76% | 67%–86% |
| 400-500k | 1,946 | 78% | 69%–87% |
| 500-750k | 2,190 | 76% | 68%–86% |
| 750k+ | 1,391 | 77% | 67%–87% |
The result holds in every year, separately.
A pattern like this usually has a boring explanation, so we went looking for one. The most dangerous was this: around a reappraisal the county sets a property’s value to its sale price, which produces a ratio of exactly 1.00 by definition. That affected 24.5% of 2023 sales and would have manufactured the result on its own.
Every one of those sales is excluded here. Then we ran the test again on each sale year independently, so a shift in the mix of years cannot carry the finding. The price-related differential — the standard measure of regressivity — sits above the fair ceiling of 1.03 in all three.
| Sale year | Sales | Bottom 20% | Top 20% | Gap | PRD | COD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 6,596 | 104.1% | 84.3% | 1.23× | 1.073 | 26.1 |
| 2024 | 9,080 | 88.6% | 77.0% | 1.15× | 1.05 | 23.1 |
| 2025 | 10,425 | 92.3% | 73.4% | 1.26× | 1.073 | 25.2 |
Two further checks. Restricting to warranty deeds alone — the ordinary arms-length instrument, 83% of these sales — still leaves the cheapest decile assessed above its sale price. Raising the price floor to $60,000, which strips the distressed transfers people reach for first as an explanation, still leaves a differential of 1.033. The effect weakens under both. It does not disappear.
Put one house against the pattern.
Enter what a property sold for and what the auditor says it is worth. This compares that ratio with the middle 50% of recent sales in the same price band — the practical question being whether one particular assessment is ordinary or unusual.
Both numbers are on the county’s own parcel page. Use the total market value, not the 35% taxable figure.
All 104 areas, sortable.
What homes sell for, how the county assesses them, what a finished square foot is valued at, and how much of the area is behind on property tax. Areas need at least 60 recent sales and 300 parcels to appear — below that the medians stop meaning anything.
| Columbia Tusculum 5 | $540,000 | 87% | $240 | 4.3% | 626 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anderson 15 | $435,000 | 87% | $169 | 2.5% | 975 |
| Northside | $276,500 | 85% | $121 | 10.2% | 2,218 |
| Delhi 2 | $254,250 | 84% | $137 | 3.7% | 1,580 |
| Miami 3 | $235,000 | 83% | $145 | 4.6% | 1,421 |
| Northside 1 | $268,750 | 83% | $113 | 9.6% | 1,490 |
| Green 5 | $249,000 | 83% | $146 | 6.0% | 2,820 |
| Loveland 3 | $370,000 | 82% | $160 | 3.3% | 1,158 |
| Anderson 1 | $323,000 | 82% | $152 | 3.5% | 1,501 |
| Anderson 65 | $310,000 | 82% | $153 | 3.1% | 1,337 |
| Cuf 1 | $210,000 | 82% | $109 | 13.4% | 900 |
| Madeira 1 | $385,000 | 82% | $225 | 4.9% | 1,744 |
| Green 2 | $230,000 | 82% | $128 | 5.2% | 2,267 |
| Delhi 7 | $230,000 | 81% | $140 | 3.2% | 1,311 |
| Green 7 | $286,500 | 81% | $136 | 6.2% | 2,005 |
| Colerain 6 | $237,500 | 81% | $134 | 11.0% | 1,990 |
| Colerain 4 | $225,000 | 81% | $123 | 5.1% | 1,890 |
| Green 139 | $240,000 | 81% | $131 | 6.8% | 633 |
| Harrison Vil 1 | $301,500 | 80% | $137 | 7.8% | 1,081 |
| Anderson 26 | $234,600 | 80% | $150 | 4.0% | 973 |
| Colerain 10 | $375,000 | 80% | $138 | 4.5% | 881 |
| Colerain 12 | $180,000 | 79% | $112 | 7.3% | 2,440 |
| Springfield 9 | $259,000 | 79% | $122 | 4.9% | 804 |
| Colerain 7 | $248,000 | 79% | $149 | 8.7% | 1,615 |
| Deer Park 3 | $265,000 | 79% | $149 | 2.3% | 564 |
| Montgomery 5 | $606,300 | 79% | $198 | 3.8% | 957 |
| Delhi 21 | $202,000 | 79% | $112 | 4.2% | 1,109 |
| Colerain 80 | $215,000 | 79% | $132 | 5.5% | 650 |
| Greenhills 1 | $235,000 | 79% | $132 | 3.2% | 616 |
| Hyde Park | $655,000 | 79% | $240 | 4.6% | 2,297 |
| Colerain 3 | $275,000 | 78% | $133 | 8.8% | 2,136 |
| Reading 4 | $242,500 | 78% | $142 | 4.2% | 1,530 |
| Norwood 6 | $200,000 | 78% | $114 | 8.4% | 1,527 |
| East Price Hill | $127,000 | 78% | $60 | 22.0% | 4,049 |
| Springfield 19 | $272,500 | 78% | $123 | 6.0% | 679 |
| Delhi 1 | $220,000 | 78% | $119 | 5.1% | 1,005 |
| Mt Airy | $215,453 | 78% | $103 | 8.0% | 1,694 |
| Harrison Vil 4 | $189,000 | 78% | $108 | 7.8% | 991 |
| Springfield 27 | $270,000 | 78% | $116 | 4.2% | 1,452 |
| Anderson 98 | $350,000 | 77% | $149 | 1.6% | 873 |
| Norwood 4 | $230,625 | 77% | $96 | 8.3% | 1,854 |
| Oakley 3 | $455,000 | 77% | $212 | 3.2% | 598 |
| Wyoming 1 | $465,000 | 77% | $188 | 2.9% | 888 |
| Avondale | $142,000 | 77% | $41 | 18.1% | 2,405 |
| Green 6 | $227,500 | 77% | $118 | 4.8% | 901 |
| Mt Lookout | $580,000 | 77% | $221 | 5.4% | 1,651 |
| Norwood 1 | $346,250 | 77% | $129 | 6.0% | 2,532 |
| Sharonville 1 | $262,000 | 77% | $165 | 5.0% | 800 |
| Hyde Park 3 | $440,000 | 77% | $222 | 3.1% | 650 |
| Westwood | $191,000 | 76% | $95 | 7.8% | 5,589 |
| Forest Park 6 | $215,150 | 76% | $118 | 8.8% | 1,290 |
| Hartwell | $185,000 | 76% | $85 | 8.2% | 875 |
| Harrison Vil 3 | $211,450 | 76% | $126 | 5.6% | 645 |
| Loveland 9 | $240,000 | 76% | $153 | 4.2% | 792 |
| College Hill | $205,000 | 76% | $106 | 9.0% | 5,027 |
| Walnut Hills | $225,000 | 76% | $67 | 13.8% | 2,389 |
| Colerain 8 | $193,950 | 76% | $123 | 5.1% | 725 |
| Green 4 | $221,500 | 76% | $139 | 6.9% | 2,157 |
| Springfield 12 | $288,500 | 76% | $118 | 4.4% | 936 |
| Mt Lookout 2 | $680,000 | 76% | $252 | 3.8% | 895 |
| Oakley 7 | $380,000 | 75% | $213 | 3.2% | 432 |
| Oakley | $360,000 | 75% | $182 | 4.5% | 2,636 |
| Springfield 8 | $230,000 | 75% | $122 | 4.4% | 1,064 |
| Delhi 3 | $260,500 | 75% | $123 | 4.0% | 741 |
| Fairfax 1 | $277,000 | 75% | $164 | 6.5% | 1,080 |
| West Price Hill 9 | $198,500 | 75% | $86 | 6.2% | 419 |
| Green 1 | $232,000 | 74% | $128 | 3.4% | 3,847 |
| Mt Washington 0 | $255,000 | 74% | $130 | 4.9% | 2,258 |
| Clifton | $495,000 | 74% | $152 | 6.3% | 1,669 |
| Colerain 79 | $222,000 | 74% | $129 | 4.1% | 508 |
| Roselawn | $204,750 | 74% | $92 | 9.8% | 1,109 |
| West Price Hill | $157,000 | 74% | $79 | 13.4% | 6,534 |
| St Bernard 1 | $225,000 | 74% | $94 | 9.6% | 1,764 |
| Sycamore 11 | $260,000 | 74% | $154 | 5.2% | 2,101 |
| Westwood 1 | $165,000 | 74% | $82 | 16.7% | 3,143 |
| Blue Ash 3 | $332,500 | 73% | $181 | 5.3% | 1,905 |
| Indian Hill (01-1Ac) | $1,450,000 | 73% | $277 | 3.5% | 1,079 |
| Cheviot 1 | $181,900 | 73% | $99 | 7.4% | 1,793 |
| Columbia 4 | $270,000 | 73% | $156 | 5.5% | 621 |
| Evanston 1 | $226,250 | 72% | $71 | 15.7% | 2,280 |
| Cuf | $260,000 | 72% | $103 | 10.6% | 2,004 |
| Madisonville | $265,000 | 71% | $119 | 10.9% | 4,040 |
| Mt Auburn | $235,000 | 71% | $66 | 13.6% | 1,287 |
| Golf Manor 1 | $211,000 | 71% | $99 | 8.9% | 1,138 |
| Cheviot 6 | $182,250 | 71% | $96 | 5.8% | 1,343 |
| Forest Park 4 | $254,900 | 71% | $106 | 7.6% | 1,123 |
| Colerain 2 | $180,000 | 71% | $108 | 9.5% | 3,785 |
| Kennedy Heights | $222,500 | 71% | $103 | 12.2% | 996 |
| Reading 1 | $159,250 | 71% | $81 | 9.3% | 2,163 |
| Colerain 1 | $204,000 | 70% | $109 | 8.6% | 2,548 |
| Deer Park 1 | $275,562 | 70% | $148 | 2.9% | 592 |
| Spring Grove Village | $165,500 | 70% | $73 | 10.4% | 1,349 |
| Forest Park 7 | $224,750 | 70% | $105 | 9.6% | 1,239 |
| Forest Park 9 | $225,000 | 69% | $99 | 6.7% | 1,095 |
| Pleasant Ridge | $315,000 | 69% | $143 | 5.2% | 2,828 |
| South Fairmount | $62,000 | 69% | $31 | 37.5% | 3,022 |
| Springfield 18 | $175,875 | 68% | $92 | 10.0% | 838 |
| Sayler Park | $190,000 | 66% | $90 | 9.9% | 1,644 |
| Bond Hill | $182,500 | 66% | $68 | 17.6% | 1,175 |
| Bond Hill 1 | $194,450 | 66% | $87 | 15.5% | 1,345 |
| Elmwood Place 1 | $110,000 | 65% | $44 | 18.4% | 924 |
| Silverton 1 | $269,500 | 65% | $127 | 8.1% | 1,184 |
| Avondale 1 | $145,000 | 64% | $46 | 15.2% | 1,612 |
| North College Hill 3 | $160,000 | 59% | $85 | 16.1% | 1,499 |
“Assessed at” is the median across recent sales in that area, so it describes the area’s pattern rather than any one house. “Behind on tax” counts every parcel carrying delinquent tax, including commercial and vacant land, not only homes.
The same test on commercial property finds the opposite.
We ran the identical method across commercial and industrial parcels, expecting to find the same story. We did not. On 1,027 clean commercial transactions from 2024–25, the median commercial property is assessed at 68.4% of what it sold for — under-assessed, and by more than housing is. Only 17.8% are assessed above their sale price at all.
We also tested whether parcels that have never contested their valuation are quietly over-assessed. They are not: never-appealed commercial parcels sit at a median ratio of 0.682 against 0.676 for those that have appealed — indistinguishable. Whatever explains the residential pattern, “nobody complained” is not it.
One commercial number is genuinely striking, and it is not the one we went looking for. The coefficient of dispersion on commercial property runs 39–44, against a fair range of 5–20. The commercial roll is not biased so much as wildly inconsistent — two similar buildings can carry very different assessments. That is a real finding and we are not yet able to explain it.
Published because a study that reports only its confirmations is not a study. If we had run the commercial test and quietly dropped it, the residential result would deserve less trust than it does.
Hamilton County has a process for contesting it.
The Board of Revision is a three-member body — the County Auditor, the County Treasurer and the President of the County Commission — that decides cases about a property’s value, not its taxes. In the county’s own words, “any owner of property in Hamilton County may contest a property value by filing a complaint” with it.
The filing window is 1 January to 31 March 2026, postmarked no later than 31 March. Complaints cannot be filed by email. One thing worth knowing before filing: a board can raise a value as well as lower it, and most property in the county is assessed below what it would sell for.
Two credits are worth checking separately, because they are claimed by application and not applied automatically. The owner-occupancy credit reduces a bill by about 5% on the evidence here. The homestead exemption is worth considerably more, and its income test — under $41,000 for 2026 — explicitly does not count Social Security payments, which is the detail that leads people to rule themselves out wrongly. Both are filed with the Auditor.
Board of Revision ↗ · Homestead & owner occupancy ↗ · Look up any parcel ↗
How this was worked out.
Every figure comes from Hamilton County’s own published data, pulled 16 September 2026: the CAGIS parcel service for all 420,246 parcels, and the Auditor’s tax-year and building exports. The study follows the standard sales-ratio method — assessed market value over sale price, on single-parcel arms-length residential sales of $15,000 or more recorded from 2023 onward, with ratios outside 0.05–5 dropped as data errors and every value-equals-price sale excluded.