District of Columbia Property Tax

The Assessment Process

A property's assessment is an estimate the current market value. Market value is how much a property would sell for under normal conditions with a willing seller and buyer. In the District of Columbia, property owners are notified on or before March 1 of the reassessment to be used for their upcoming fiscal year tax bill. District of Columbia law requires that real property (real estate) be assessed at 100 % of its estimated market value as of January 1 before the new tax year. After a property's total value is determined, the appropriate deductions and credits are applied for billing purposes.
 

Assessment Approaches
 

A few years ago, District law established a triennial assessment process. Triennial assessments required the city to be divided into three approximately equal and geographically contiguous groups of real property, and assessments were to be performed for each one-third of the city’s real estate each year.