What is the property tax rate in Colorado?
The property tax rate in Colorado averages 0.50% of market value for owner-occupied homes (Tax Foundation 2026, using the 2024 American Community Survey). That is about a third of the Texas rate of 1.40%, and only Alabama, Arizona, Utah and South Carolina come in lower among the 47 states we cover.
Colorado bills are not figured from that number, though. Your county assessor sets an actual value, a state-set assessment rate turns it into an assessed value, and the combined mill levy of every district you sit in is applied to the assessed value. One mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value.
How Colorado property taxes are calculated
Multiply actual value by the assessment rate to get assessed value, then multiply assessed value by the mill levy and divide by 1,000. Boulder County’s assessor shows the steps with a 2026 example: an $800,000 home, less the $70,000 value reduction for local government levies, times 6.8%, is $49,640 of assessed value, and at a 65-mill local government levy the tax is $3,227.
Since 2025, Colorado has applied two residential assessment rates to the same property: one for school district levies and one for every other local government. Your bill adds the school portion and the local portion together.
- Actual value: set by the assessor at each odd-year reappraisal.
- Assessment rate: set by state law for each class of property and each year.
- Mill levy: the sum of the county, school district, city and special district levies for your tax area.
Colorado assessment rates for apartments in 2025 and 2026
Apartment buildings are residential property in Colorado, and House Bill 24B-1001 sets one set of residential rates without separating single-family from multifamily. That matters, because improved commercial property is assessed at 27% for 2025 and 25% from 2026, more than three times the residential rates.
| Levy type | 2025 assessment rate | 2026 and later |
|---|---|---|
| Residential, school district levies | 7.05% (6.95% if statewide value growth tops 5%) | 7.05% (the 2026 rate published by the Division of Property Taxation) |
| Residential, all other local governments | 6.25% (6.15% if growth tops 5%) | 6.8% for 2026 per the Division of Property Taxation, after subtracting 10% of actual value up to $70,000 |
| Improved commercial | 27% | 25% |
The 2026 value reduction
From 2026, residential property subtracts 10% of actual value, up to $70,000, before the local government rate applies. Larimer County’s 2025 rate letter lists it as a reduction of 10% of the first $700,000, with a minimum assessed value of $1,000, and it does not apply to school levies.
How the reduction is counted for a building with many units is a question for your county assessor. Ask before you budget, since a reduction applied once per parcel and one applied per unit would produce very different bills on a 30-unit property.
Does Colorado reassess property when it sells?
No. A sale does not trigger a new value in Colorado. Real property is revalued county-wide every odd-numbered year, and the value stays in place for that year and the next.
For tax years 2025 and 2026, the Division of Property Taxation says values are based on sales from January 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. Denver’s assessor describes a 24-month window ending June 30, 2024. A building that sells in 2026 keeps its 2025 value through the 2026 tax year, and the price then becomes evidence for the 2027 reappraisal, which looks back to a study period ending June 30, 2026.
So a buyer’s first full year usually carries the seller’s value. The step-up, if there is one, arrives with the next odd-year notice of value.
Colorado mill levies by county
Mill levies differ more within a county than between counties, because each tax area combines a different set of schools, cities, fire districts and metro districts. A building inside a metro district on the edge of Denver can carry a far higher levy than one a mile away in an older neighborhood.
County abstracts give a useful average. Larimer County’s 2025 Abstract of Assessments and Levies shows $969,890,136 levied on $9,748,783,983 of assessed value, which works out to about 99.49 mills across all districts. The Division of Property Taxation publishes every county’s average in its annual report, and your own levy is printed on your tax notice and the county treasurer’s site.
How Colorado compares with nearby states
Colorado sits near the bottom of the effective-rate table, close to its western neighbors and far below the plains states to the east. The figures below are the Tax Foundation’s 2026 effective rates on owner-occupied homes, so treat them as a guide to the tax climate rather than to any one apartment bill.
For an owner deciding where to buy next, the comparison cuts both ways. A move east into Kansas or Nebraska can mean a property tax line two to three times heavier on the same value, while Utah and Arizona run slightly lower than Colorado. Rents, growth and income tax matter as much as the rate itself.
| State | Effective property tax rate (Tax Foundation 2026) |
|---|---|
| Arizona | 0.48% |
| Utah | 0.48% |
| Colorado | 0.50% |
| Wyoming | 0.53% |
| New Mexico | 0.63% |
| Oklahoma | 0.79% |
| Kansas | 1.21% |
| Nebraska | 1.44% |
How to appeal your property value in Colorado
You protest to the county assessor by June 8, after the notice of value arrives by May 1. The protest must be postmarked or delivered by that date.
If you disagree with the assessor’s determination, you can appeal to the county board of equalization, and then to the Board of Assessment Appeals, district court or binding arbitration. Apartment owners usually argue value with an income approach: rent roll, vacancy, operating expenses and market cap rates as of the study period.
- By May 1: notice of value mailed.
- June 8: last day to protest to the assessor.
- Last working day of June: assessor’s notice of determination (counties may extend to August 15).
- July 15: appeal to the county board of equalization (September 15 in counties using the extended schedule).
- Within 30 days of the county board’s decision: appeal to the Board of Assessment Appeals, district court or arbitration.
Exemptions and limits for Colorado apartments
Colorado has no general exemption for rental apartments. The senior exemption, which in 2025 and 2026 reduces value by 50% of the first $200,000, is listed for senior primary residences only, so it does not reach a building you rent out.
There is also no cap on how much one property’s value can rise. HB24B-1001 limits growth in local government property tax revenue to 5.25% times the number of years in the reassessment cycle, but school districts are outside that limit, and it caps a district’s total revenue rather than your assessment. When values jump, the limit can force districts to lower mill levies, which softens but does not stop the increase on any one building.
Worked example: property tax on a $2M Colorado apartment building
Take a 24-unit building in Larimer County with an actual value of $2,000,000 for 2026. At the 6.8% local government rate, assessed value is $136,000; at the 7.05% school rate it is $141,000. Using the county’s 99.49-mill average and ignoring the 2026 value reduction, the tax falls between about $13,531 (if every mill were taxed at 6.8%) and $14,028 (if every mill were taxed at 7.05%). The real bill sits in between, set by how much of the levy is school mills. That is about 0.68% to 0.70% of value.
Now the sale. Suppose the building carried a 2025-26 value of $1,600,000 and sells in 2026 for $2,000,000. The buyer pays tax on the $1,600,000 value through 2026, about $10,825 to $11,222. If the 2027 reappraisal moves the value to the $2,000,000 price at the same levy, the bill rises by about $2,700 to $2,800 a year. At an illustrative 6% cap rate, that cuts roughly $45,000 to $47,000 from what a buyer would pay.
| Scenario | Assessed value (6.8% to 7.05%) | Yearly tax at 99.49 mills |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 value of $1,600,000 | $108,800 to $112,800 | $10,825 to $11,222 |
| 2027 value reset to $2,000,000 price | $136,000 to $141,000 | $13,531 to $14,028 |
| Increase in yearly tax | $2,706 to $2,806 |
How property tax affects your sale price
Buyers price apartment buildings on net operating income, so the tax line they expect after the next reappraisal is what counts. A sophisticated buyer in Colorado looks past the current bill to the odd-year notice and models the price they paid as the new value.
Two things help a seller. A recent successful protest gives the buyer a documented income-based value to point to. A clean record of the levies in your tax area, including any metro district debt, prevents a surprise late in due diligence. Bring the last two notices of value and tax statements to any sale conversation.
Timing matters too. A sale that closes soon after an odd-year notice gives the buyer the rest of that year and all of the next on a known value, while a sale late in an even year leaves only a few months before the next notice arrives. If you know your value is about to jump, a buyer will price that in either way, so it is better to show the math yourself than to have it found late.
Selling an apartment building in Colorado
Skyline buys apartment buildings with five or more units in Colorado, along the Front Range and beyond. We buy directly, close on your timeline, and can work inside 1031 deadlines. We underwrite from your actual tax notices, so a building with a fair value shows up in what we can pay.
For the tax on the sale itself, see our page on Colorado capital gains tax on real estate. For the eviction, deposit and notice rules a buyer will inherit, see Colorado landlord-tenant law for apartment owners.
