Why Should Delaware Care?
Wilmington residents and city officials have criticized the outcome of New Castle County tax reassessment completed in 2024, saying it exaggerated property values and drove up tax bills — especially for lower-income residents. In response, Mayor John Carney rolled out a new plan that could lower future bills, but it’s proving harder than expected to get the job done.
Wilmington’s plan to reassess home values in the city by looking inside some of them is proving to be more difficult than expected, as officials struggle to secure a contractor to do the work.
Amid outrage over steep jumps in tax bills last September, Mayor John Carney announced his initiative to hire a contractor to conduct interior appraisals of residential properties on a block-by-block basis for neighborhoods with assessments that were deemed to be “too high.”
Asked during a budget address last week how the plan is progressing, Carney said, “not great.”
He said no company has submitted a formal bid for the work after the city solicited proposals. Four contractors did request additional information.
“So we’ve got to go back to the four, and we’ve got to say, ‘Why didn’t you bid?’” Carney said.
The city issued the request for proposals for the contract in January, Carney’s spokeswoman, Caroline Klinger, said. She also noted that the city will be reaching out directly to vendors.
“We are actively working to stand up a program to validate the reassessment as promised,” Klinger said in a statement, referencing New Castle County’s reassessment of properties completed in 2024.
Klinger also noted that the county’s appeals program remains active.
When announced last year, Carney’s plan required a half-million-dollar budget amendment, which included $425,000 to hire the contractor, and $75,000 to establish a grant program to assist residents filing appeals with the New Castle County Board of Assessment.
The City Council approved the budget amendment in October.
Without a city program to reassess the county’s assessment, Carney noted that residents would simply have to rely on New Castle County’s one-on-one appeal process.
“That will take forever. We have whole neighborhoods that have been misvalued,” Carney said.
If the city is ultimately able to complete assessments of home interiors, officials will present the data to New Castle County in hopes it will accept the new numbers. Their goal for the process is to ultimately lower the amount of money some residents pay in property taxes.
Asked about the project, Natalie Criscenzo, a spokesperson for New Castle County, said County officials are looking forward to working with the city “to better understand the specific details and methodology of this proposal.”
“Any consideration of assessment changes would need to be reviewed carefully to ensure consistency with applicable legal standards and obligations,” she said.
Who will let appraisers into their homes?
Wilmington’s plan came after months of complaints from residents throughout the state, especially in northern Delaware, about sharp tax bill increases that came as a result of the first statewide property reassessment in more than four decades.
City officials have placed a particular focus on lower-income neighborhoods, such as Hilltop and Southbridge, where property taxes have doubled and tripled, according to a heat map the city released of property tax changes.
Spotlight Delaware also previously reported that Hilltop, the Eastside, Riverside and Southbridge experienced property assessment hikes between 700% and 1,000%.
Aside from the delay in finding a contractor to carry out the plan, one of the biggest hurdles may be convincing residents to allow assessors into their homes.
Local community advocates previously told Spotlight Delaware that residents may be wary of letting contractors into their homes and that it would be important for the city to educate residents so they can better understand the process.
But some residents are optimistic.
Donald Ferrell, a longtime city resident and Eastside landlord, said he would be open to interior assessments on his properties if it would help bring taxes down.
Ferrell said he hasn’t seen major increases across most of his properties. However, he said one of his vacant property, which is not yet livable, saw a significant spike.
“It’s practically a shell, but it more than doubled,” he said.
