Philadelphia City Council finally got its hearing on rising property assessments on Monday, and the timing told the story. The Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development and the Homeless questioned the Office of Property Assessment about the new valuations 270 days after it authorized the hearing, and three weeks before the 2027 tax bills start going out.
Resolution 260101, introduced by 7th District Councilmember Quetcy Lozada and adopted Feb. 12, ordered the committee to examine OPA, its methods, its appeals process, and what the new assessments mean for residents. Monday was the first hearing held under it, in Room 400 at City Hall.
The numbers behind the hearing are big. OPA revalued more than 580,000 properties for tax year 2027. The revaluation raised 391,701 assessments, lowered 159,404, and left 32,415 unchanged. The city estimates the median valued home will see its tax bill change by about $97, though actual changes vary widely. OPA’s own ratio study puts the median assessment at 99 percent of sale prices, inside the industry benchmarks for accuracy.
But the averages hide a pattern the city itself has now documented. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s Home Assessment Bias Task Force, in a final report dated October 2026, found that assessments are less accurate, less uniform, and more likely to be regressive in Black, Hispanic, and lower income neighborhoods than in white, higher income ones. The report credits OPA with major improvement since 2018, and says routine reassessments are a best practice. It also says the disparities have not gone away, and that regressive assessments slowly strip wealth from the homeowners who can least afford it, overtaxing lower priced homes and widening the racial wealth gap.
That is the context Council was working in on Monday, and the calendar worked against homeowners. The deadline for a First Level Review through OPA passed Sept. 1. The deadline for a formal appeal to the Board of Revision of Taxes passed Oct. 5. The hearing came after most owners had already lost their chance to challenge a bad value. The bills go out Dec. 1, the new values take effect Jan. 1, and payment is due March 31.
One account of the hearing, published Nov. 10 by the aggregator Daily Briefers, described Council members pressing for a freeze on reassessments and Aros declining to commit to a pause. Philly Rhino has not independently confirmed those exchanges. No major Philadelphia outlet has reported on the hearing’s outcome, and the official video and transcript had not been posted as of Tuesday. What is certain is that a hearing changes nothing by itself. Any freeze, rate change, or new relief program would need separate legislation.
What homeowners can still do has a deadline of its own. The Homestead Exemption, which cuts $100,000 off the taxable value of an owner occupied home and saves most owners $1,399 a year, takes applications through Dec. 1. The Longtime Owner Occupants Program and the Senior Citizen and Low Income Tax Freeze, both income based, take applications through Sept. 30, 2027. An installment plan for seniors and income qualified owners is also available.
City Controller Christy Brady is separately auditing the assessment and appeals system, the Philadelphia Tribune reported. Council has not announced its next steps on the task force report. For now, the hearing is on the record, the bills are still coming, and the Dec. 1 deadline is the one that matters most.
