Colorado Springs apartment property taxes are calculated by multiplying a building’s actual value, set by the El Paso County Assessor using the market approach, by a state residential assessment rate and then by the combined mill levy of every taxing district the property sits in. Because Colorado treats buildings with two or more units as residential property, an apartment owner in Colorado Springs pays at the same assessment rates as a homeowner, which have historically been far lower than the rates applied to commercial property, but the rates and the rules around them have changed almost every year since 2020.
Colorado Springs is the county seat of El Paso County, and the U.S. Census Bureau counted 478,961 residents there in April 2020 and estimates 494,743 as of July 2025, according to Census QuickFacts for Colorado Springs. This guide walks through each part of the calculation, the calendar that governs valuation and payment, and what the numbers mean when an owner budgets or underwrites a building.
The three numbers behind Colorado Springs apartment property taxes
The Colorado Division of Property Taxation describes every property tax bill as the product of three figures:
- Actual value. The assessor’s estimate of what the property was worth on the appraisal date.
- Assessment rate. A percentage set by state law that converts actual value into assessed value. Residential and commercial property have different rates.
- Mill levy. The combined tax rate of the county, city, school district and special districts that serve the parcel. One mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value.
The assessor controls only the first number. The legislature sets the second, and the third is the sum of decisions made by each local taxing authority. When an owner’s bill changes, the reason can sit in any of the three, so it pays to look at them separately.
Why Colorado taxes apartments as residential property
Under Colorado Revised Statutes 39-1-104.2, “multi-family residential real property,” meaning a duplex, triplex or building of four or more units, is a subclass of residential real property. That classification has large consequences. Under the old Gallagher Amendment, most nonresidential property was fixed at a 29% assessment rate while the residential rate drifted downward, from 21% in 1985 to 7.15% in 2019. Voters repealed Gallagher in 2020 through Amendment B, and an attempt during the 2024 special session to restore it, HCR24B-1002, did not pass.
After the repeal, the legislature cut residential rates repeatedly as home values rose. Voters rejected Proposition HH, a broader property tax measure, in November 2023. The legislature then passed SB24-233, signed May 14, 2024, which lowered the 2024 multifamily rate from 6.8% to 6.7% and, starting with tax year 2025, folded multifamily into the same rate as “all residential real property.” Months later, HB24B-1001, passed in a special session and signed September 4, 2024, replaced the SB24-233 schedule with the rates in effect today.
Assessment rates for tax years 2025 and 2026
The most important change under HB24B-1001 is that residential property now carries two assessment rates: one applied to school district mill levies and a lower one applied to every other levy. For apartment buildings, the schedule looks like this:
- Tax year 2024: 6.7% for multifamily property, under SB24-233.
- Tax year 2025: 7.05% for school district levies and 6.25% for local government levies.
- Tax year 2026, schools: 7.05% for all residential real property, according to the Division of Property Taxation. From 2026 the school rate can be adjusted, but it can never exceed 7.05%.
- Tax year 2026, local government: 6.80% after a 10% reduction of the first $700,000 of actual value, with a minimum assessed value of $1,000, according to the Division of Property Taxation’s residential local government assessment rate page.
The state’s published guidance does not spell out how the 2026 value reduction is applied to a multi-unit building, as opposed to a single home, so owners should confirm with the El Paso County Assessor how it appears on their notice. Because the reduction is capped at $70,000 of value, it matters far less to a multimillion-dollar apartment property than to a typical house either way.
How the El Paso County Assessor values apartment buildings
Colorado law, at C.R.S. 39-1-103(5)(a), requires that the actual value of residential property be determined solely by the market approach, meaning comparable sales. The El Paso County Assessor’s appeals and valuation page draws the contrast with commercial property, which the office values using the cost, income and market approaches. For an apartment owner, this means the value on the notice is driven by sales of similar properties during the data-collection period, not by the building’s own rent roll or operating statement. Income evidence can still help in an appeal by explaining why a sale was or was not comparable, but sales are the measure.
The two-year reappraisal cycle
El Paso County reappraises all property in odd-numbered years. For the 2025 and 2026 tax years, the data-collection period ran from January 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024, and June 30, 2024 is the appraisal date. In the even year between reappraisals, only properties that changed, through new construction or demolition, for example, receive a new notice. The next full reappraisal is in 2027, and it will reflect sales from a new data period ending June 30, 2026.
The lag is worth noting. Market conditions can shift considerably in two years, so a 2025–2026 value set as of mid-2024 may differ from what a building would sell for today. The 2027 notice will be the first to capture sales from mid-2024 through mid-2026.
Mill levies across Colorado Springs school districts
Colorado Springs spans several school districts, and the school levy is by far the largest piece of the bill, so the district a building sits in can change its tax by thousands of dollars. The El Paso County Treasurer’s mill levy schedule lists these levies for tax year 2025, the bills payable in 2026:
- El Paso County: 6.857 mills
- City of Colorado Springs: 3.009 mills
- Pikes Peak Library District: 2.938 mills
- Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District: 0.85 mills
- Colorado Springs School District 11: 37.695 mills
- Academy School District 20: 45.459 mills
- Harrison School District 2: 39.989 mills
- Cheyenne Mountain School District 12: 55 mills
Adding the first four levies to District 11’s gives about 51.35 mills for a typical District 11 address before any special districts. Special districts, such as metropolitan districts, can add more, so the only reliable figure for a specific building is the tax district shown on its own bill. Levies also move from year to year: between tax years 2024 and 2025, the city’s levy fell from 3.554 to 3.009 mills and District 11’s fell from 40.605 to 37.695.
A worked example for a 24-unit building
To see how the pieces combine, consider a hypothetical 24-unit building in District 11 with an actual value of $4,000,000 for tax year 2025, using the 2025 assessment rates and the levies listed above, and assuming no special districts:
- School portion: $4,000,000 × 7.05% = $282,000 assessed value. At 37.695 mills, that is about $10,630.
- Local government portion: $4,000,000 × 6.25% = $250,000 assessed value. At 13.654 combined mills for the county, city, library and water conservancy district, that is about $3,414.
- Total: roughly $14,043 a year, or about $585 per unit, which works out to an effective rate of about 0.35% of actual value.
The same building in Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 would carry a school levy of 55 mills instead of 37.695, raising the school portion to about $15,510 and the total to roughly $18,920. That spread, from the school district alone, is why two similar buildings a few miles apart in Colorado Springs can show very different expense lines. The example is an illustration only; a real bill will reflect the property’s own value, tax district and any special district levies.
How the split rates changed the math
The move from a single multifamily rate to split school and local rates did not affect every owner the same way, because school levies make up most of the mills on a Colorado Springs bill. Holding the same $4,000,000 value and the 2025 District 11 levies constant, and ignoring any value subtraction, the single 6.7% rate used for multifamily in 2024 would have produced about $13,762. The 2025 split rates produce about $14,043, roughly 2% more, because the school rate rose to 7.05% while the lower 6.25% rate applies only to the smaller, non-school share of the levy. In a district with a lower school levy relative to the other taxing authorities, the effect would be smaller.
The same logic applies to 2026. Because 2026 is not a reappraisal year, most apartment values carry over from 2025, but the local government rate moves from 6.25% to 6.80% with the new value reduction, and levies will be reset by each taxing authority in the fall. An unchanged value therefore does not guarantee an unchanged bill.
The valuation notice and appeal calendar
Owners who think a value is too high have a defined, short window. The El Paso County Assessor’s assessment calendar sets out the sequence:
- May 1: the Assessor mails Notices of Valuation.
- Early June: objections to the Assessor are due. HB25-1324, signed June 4, 2025, moved the statutory deadline for assessors to hear objections from June 1 to June 8, and the county’s appeal window has run from May 1 to June 8.
- Notice of Determination: after reviewing an objection, the Assessor mails a written determination explaining whether and how the value changed.
- County Board of Equalization: owners who disagree with the determination can petition the board; the 2026 calendar lists July 15 as the petition date.
- After the board: within 30 days of its decision, an owner can appeal to the state Board of Assessment Appeals, to district court, or to binding arbitration, which is final.
Because residential value is set by sales, the strongest evidence in an apartment appeal is usually a set of comparable sales from the data-collection period that are closer in size, age, condition and location than the ones the Assessor used. Dated photographs of deferred maintenance and repair estimates can support a condition adjustment. Owners who appeal in a reappraisal year also protect the following year, since the value generally carries over.
Before arguing about market value, it is worth checking the property record itself. Errors in the basics, such as the number of units, gross building area, year built, number of buildings on the parcel or a recorded condition rating, feed directly into a sales-comparison valuation, and they are the easiest corrections to obtain. An owner who has converted, combined or taken units offline should make sure the record reflects that before the next notice is mailed, rather than discovering the mismatch after May 1.
When the tax bill is due
Colorado property tax is paid in arrears: tax for 2025 is billed and paid in 2026. According to the El Paso County Treasurer’s important dates page, statements are mailed by January 28. Owners can pay in two halves, with the first due on the last day of February and the second by June 15, or pay in full by April 30.
For owners without a lender escrow, those dates matter for cash management. The first half lands at the end of February, often in the same weeks as annual insurance renewals or winter repair costs, and the second half lands in mid-June. Setting aside a twelfth of the expected bill each month, based on the latest valuation, current assessment rates and the prior year’s levies, avoids a surprise when the statement arrives.
The arrears schedule creates a practical issue at closing. A buyer who acquires a building in the fall of 2026 will receive, in early 2027, a bill covering all of 2026, part of which belongs to the seller’s period of ownership. Purchase contracts handle this with a proration credit, typically based on the most recent bill, and both sides should check whether a new valuation or levy change is likely to make that estimate too low or too high.
TABOR and the city’s own revenue limit
Colorado Springs has an extra layer of tax limitation. City voters approved charter amendments in 1991 that cap city revenue growth, a year before voters adopted the statewide Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights in 1992. When the city collects more than the limit allows, it must refund the excess or ask voters to keep it, and it has done so in different ways, including a credit on eligible electric accounts. For property owners, the city’s share of the bill is small, at about 3 mills, but TABOR also constrains how quickly any local mill levy can rise without a vote.
What the numbers mean for owners
For anyone holding or evaluating a Colorado Springs apartment building, a few habits follow from the way the system works:
- Model taxes from the three components rather than copying last year’s bill forward, especially across a reappraisal year such as 2027.
- Identify the school district and any metropolitan district for every parcel; they explain most of the difference between buildings.
- Watch the legislature. The residential rate has been changed by statute in 2024 twice, and the 2026 local government rate carries a new value reduction.
- Keep a file of nearby apartment sales within each data-collection period so an appeal can be prepared quickly after May 1.
- In a purchase, confirm how the tax proration is calculated, since the bill arrives a year after the tax year it covers.
Property tax is one of the largest fixed expenses in an apartment budget, and in Colorado the residential classification is what sets its scale. Our comparison of rent control and property tax rules by state puts Colorado’s approach in context, and the Colorado market overview covers other cities in the state. For owners thinking about a transaction, our page on selling an apartment building in Colorado Springs explains how we evaluate buildings there, including how we account for the tax bill a buyer will inherit.
