Assessment Appeals in Luzerne County, and Why the Common Level Ratio Decides Them

Luzerne County's assessments still rest on its 2009 countywide reassessment, which was the first since 1965. The county administration said in May 2026 that there are no plans for a new one at this time, and the strategic plan County Council adopted in June lists planning for a countywide reassessment as a long-term recommendation. Until that happens, an owner who believes an assessment is too high has one remedy, an appeal to the Board of Assessment Appeals.

The part of an appeal most owners do not expect is that the board does not simply decide whether your number is fair. It decides your property's market value, and then applies a ratio to that value. Which ratio it applies is set by state law, and in Luzerne County right now it produces an assessment equal to the full market value.

What the Common Level Ratio Is

Every year the State Tax Equalization Board studies the sales in each county and compares each sale price to the property's assessment. The median of those comparisons is the county's common level ratio. For Luzerne County the most recent figure, built from 922 sales in 2025 and certified on May 20, 2026, is 87.4%. In other words, the typical property that sold in 2025 was assessed at 87.4% of its sale price. That ratio applies to appeals filed from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. The Board itself says the ratio is to be used in appeals only, not to create a value.

From July 2012 through June 2020 the ratio was above 100% every year, meaning assessments were higher than sale prices. Every year since, it has been below 100%. The Department of Revenue publishes a related number, a factor of 1.14 for Luzerne for July 2026 through June 2027, which is simply the reciprocal of the ratio and is used to figure realty transfer tax on transfers that are not ordinary sales. It is not the number used in an appeal.

The 15% Rule

Luzerne County's established predetermined ratio is 100%, meaning assessments are meant to equal full market value as of the base year. The Consolidated County Assessment Law tells the board what to do with it. The board determines the property's current market value as of the date the appeal was filed, and applies the county's established ratio to that value, unless the common level ratio differs from the established ratio by more than 15%. Only then does it apply the common level ratio instead.

With a ratio of 87.4%, the difference from 100% is 12.6 points, which is inside the 15% band. So for appeals filed between July 2026 and June 2027, the board applies 100%, and a property the board finds is worth $180,000 is assessed at $180,000.

Three years earlier the result was different. For appeals filed between July 2023 and June 2024 the ratio was 69.4%, more than 15 points below 100%, so the board applied the ratio instead. The same $180,000 property would have been assessed at $124,920.

That is why the ratio matters. Because the county's median ratio is below 100%, an appeal decided today at full market value lowers the assessment only when the current assessment is higher than what the property is actually worth. For a typical property, assessed below its sale value, an appeal can produce a higher assessment, and the county's appeal form says in capital letters that the board may act to raise or lower an assessment.

Filing an Appeal in Luzerne County

• Deadline. August 1 each year, by 4:00 p.m., received rather than postmarked, under the board's rules. The county's FAQ moves the deadline to the next business day when August 1 falls on a weekend. August 1, 2027 is a Sunday.
• Forms. The county publishes separate forms for single-family residential, multifamily, commercial and industrial, exempt and vacant land property, and appeals must be on the board's official form.
• Where to file. By mail to the Luzerne County Assessor's Office at 200 North River Street, Wilkes-Barre, or in person at the office in the Courthouse Annex, 153 North River Street. No online filing is listed.
• Burden of proof. The owner must show by a preponderance of the evidence that the assessment is wrong. A recent appraisal or recent sales of comparable homes is the usual evidence.
• Timing. Annual appeals are to be heard by October 31, and decisions mailed by November 15. A change takes effect with the next year's tax bills.
• After the decision. Either side may appeal to the Court of Common Pleas within 30 days of the date the decision was mailed.

Fees are from the county's schedule updated November 16, 2023 and are not refundable. Separate deadlines apply outside the annual cycle. An owner who receives a notice of a changed assessment, after an addition for example, has 40 days from the notice to appeal it, and an owner who loses 50% or more of a property's value to a catastrophe has 60 days from the loss.

School Districts Can Appeal Too

A taxing district, most often a school district, has the same right to appeal any assessment within its boundaries, and can join an owner's appeal as a party. In 2017 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held in Valley Forge Towers v. Upper Merion Area School District that a taxing district may not appeal only one type of property, such as apartment buildings, while leaving others alone. It left open whether a district may choose appeals by a dollar threshold applied to every type of property.

Lackawanna County After Its Reassessment

Lackawanna County finished its first countywide reassessment since 1968 under a court-ordered deadline, and the new values took effect on January 1, 2026. Final values for more than 102,000 properties were mailed in June 2025, and formal appeals on the new values were due August 1, 2025. About 4,200 were filed by the deadline, and the boards expected to hear about 4,800 in all, fewer than 5% of parcels. The county cut its tax rate from 89.98 mills to 5.79.

State law limits what taxing bodies can do in the first year after a reassessment. The county and each municipality must lower their rates so that total taxes on existing property do not exceed the year before, and may then raise them, by a separate vote, by no more than 10%. School districts are held to their own state index instead. Because the values are new, appeals there are decided at 100% until the state's ratio catches up with them. The window for 2027 appeals closed on August 1, 2026 and reopens on April 1, 2027. The county's board rules, written before the reassessment, call for an appraisal by a Pennsylvania certified appraiser when the property is assessed at $50,000 or more, and on the new values that includes most homes. Check the current rules with the Assessment Office before filing.

Two Filings Every Owner Should Know

The homestead exclusion is not an appeal, but it lowers the school tax on a primary residence, and it has its own deadline. Applications are due to the county assessor by March 1 for the following tax year. And under Act 29 of 2026, anyone who buys property they will not live in must file their contact information with the county assessor within 30 days of the purchase. Both counties have posted the form.

Sources

• Pennsylvania State Tax Equalization Board, 2025 Common Level Ratios (certified May 20, 2026), and 2024 and 2023 certifications
• Luzerne County, Common Level Ratio page, Assessment Appeal FAQ, Board of Tax Assessment Appeals rules (revised September 15, 2015), appeal forms, and Appeal Fee Schedule (updated November 16, 2023)
• Luzerne County Ordinance 2013-1, setting the August 1 appeal deadline
• Consolidated County Assessment Law, 53 Pa.C.S. Chapter 88, sections 8802, 8823, 8844, 8848, 8854 and 8855
• Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, Common Level Ratio Real Estate Valuation Factors, current and historical (July 2026)
• Luzerne County Council Resolution R-2026-134 and the Pennsylvania Economy League strategic plan, June 23, 2026
• Times Leader, May 20, 2026, on the county's assessment ratio and reassessment plans
• Valley Forge Towers Apartments N, LP v. Upper Merion Area School District, Pennsylvania Supreme Court, July 5, 2017
• Lackawanna County, reassessment release (June 20, 2025) and Assessment Office page; WVIA (November 14, 2025) and the Scranton Times-Tribune (August and October 2025) on the court deadline and appeal counts
• Taxpayer Relief Act of 2006, section 327, school district limits after a reassessment, and 53 Pa.C.S. section 8584, homestead exclusion
• Act 29 of 2026, and the Luzerne and Lackawanna County non-owner-occupied contact forms