News

As you may have heard, the Governor of Ohio signed into law in early January House Bill 45.  This bill
contained a provision that may be very harmful to affordable housing properties, as it allows the ‘cost
approach’ to be used by County Auditors when determining the valuation of affordable housing real
estate.  This valuation method could easily result in a doubling or tripling of the real estate tax being
paid by a property, which will place certain properties under severe financial stress. 

This damaging provision was inserted into House Bill 45 during the lame duck legislative session at the
end of the year and was not subject to any vetting and/or committee hearings.  The affordable housing
industry was fully engaged in a lobbying effort to combat this measure, but regrettably it was signed into
law. 

While this new law should not impact the real estate valuations in 2023, we believe that certain County
Auditors may be very aggressive and push for valuation increases immediately.  If you see evidence of
this at any of your properties, please immediately contact your OCCH Asset Manager to notify us. 
Please know that OCCH will remain highly engaged with the various industry stakeholders and we will be
working to combat this issue over the coming year.