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DENVER (KDVR) — A state economic forecast from December said homeowners are in for yet another blow to their pocketbooks this year.

The average assessed value of a property will balloon by 26.5%, according to the forecast. Potentially, this could add hundreds or thousands to the yearly property tax bill, which would especially endanger Coloradans on fixed incomes.

The governor and state legislature have dealt with this problem in the past. The Colorado Constitution’s Gallagher Amendment, which voters scrapped in 2020, used to limit how much property taxes could climb. Coloradans tossed the amendment just as the national and Colorado housing markets spiked to historically unaffordable levels.

For homeowners in the Denver metro area, the new home values mean at least hundreds more a year.

Property taxes are a complex regimen that involved multiplying a home’s assessed value by the state assessment rate. That number is the “assessed value,” which is then multiplied by whatever local mill levies are put in place by counties, cities or school districts. The final number is what a property owner owes.

The Data Desk assumed homes in the Denver metro were assessed at $450,000 the last time the assessments were done. The Desk then increased the assessed value by 26.5%.

At the state assessment rate of 6.765% proposed for 2023 and each county’s average mill levy, a home in Denver would owe $3,000 in yearly taxes instead of $2,400.

Broomfield and Adams counties’ property tax bills would go up over $900 apiece, while homeowners in Arapahoe, Boulder, Jefferson and Larimer counties would be on the hook for between $700 and $800 more a year.