City Tax Assessor Neal Dupuis asks Warwick homeowners and businesses to pose one question when they go online or open a letter from his office in mid-April: “Could I sell the property for what it is being valued?”

If the answer is, “I don’t think so,” then it’s time to look at comparable properties and those values.

But before digging much deeper – Dupuis has seen taxpayers spend countless hours researching property values and preparing charts to support their arguments – he recommends they call his office and “have a conversation with us first.”

“We’re getting close to the tail end,” Dupuis said of the full citywide revaluation that will be used in calculating tax bills for the 2025-26 fiscal year.  Unless there’s a delay, the bills should be mailed by mid-June.

The city administration is in the midst of budget deliberations, with the big unknown being the School Department budget. Schools have yet to close out fiscal year 2024 budget, which is projected to run a deficit. According to projections made earlier this year, schools were on track to finishing the current operating budget with a deficit that could be as high as $9 million. Cost-cutting efforts are being made.

Mayor Frank Picozzi is hopeful that a five-member School Budget Commission approved last week by the General Assembly will dig into the budgets, find ways to reduce deficits and develop balanced budgets going forward. Schools submitted a five-year plan to State Auditor David Bergantino more than a week ago, which is serving as a basis for discussion.  As it stands now, Picozzi says, the school plan won’t work because it is too dependent on the city paying off school deficits rather than schools cutting costs.

Values going up

There’s no question that given the spike in real estate values – especially in Warwick, where single family homes carried a median price of $425,000 in February, according to the Rhode Island Real Estate Association – will increase assessed values dramatically from the last full revaluation in 2015. Full revaluations are performed every nine years. Statistical revaluations are done on the third and sixth year after a full revaluation.

Mike Pereira of June Realty, who is president-elect of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, offered another way of gauging Warwick values. He totaled the sale prices of Warwick homes for the last three years and came up with an average price for each year. He then compared those prices year over year. He found that for 2022, Warwick home prices increased by 10.5% from 2021. In 2023 and 2024 they increased by 9% each year.

“I don’t think prices of single family homes will ever come down,” he said.  Furthermore, as he pointed out, the volume of Warwick sales always leads the state, which he attributes to its central Rhode Island location and density of housing.  Fueling the market’s boom was the pandemic, which prompted remote work from home and made Rhode Island attractive because of its relatively affordable homes.

Pereira said 50% of single-family homebuyers are from out of state. As for those selling, he said most sales result from unforeseen circumstances, whether it is a change in jobs, a divorce, a death or the loss of a job.

Don’t panic, says Realtor

As for homeowners staying in Warwick, Pereira  advises them “not to panic” when they get their revaluation notices.

“Warwick is a great city … I don’t think residents should be concerned,” he said.

Assessor Dupuis cautions homeowners not to compare the value assigned to their property to the median price of homes in Warwick.  Dupuis calls the median price of homes “misleading” because every property has its individual value. Moreover, he warns homeowners not to apply the percentage growth in median values to their current tax bill, or to apply the current tax rate to the new valuation.

He points out that taxes are a function of the budget and what needs to be raised [the levy] to provide services. By law the city can’t raise the levy by more than 4% without legislative approval or only under certain conditions.

During this revaluation, Vision Government Solutions played a lesser role than in previous years, with the assessor’s office checking properties and conducting visits. Dupuis estimates the city saved $1.1 million over having had Vision perform the full revaluation. He said the department, working alongside Vision, also gained insights and skills that will be useful going forward.