To appeal your 2026 Madison property tax assessment, email a written objection to openbook@cityofmadison.com before May 15, 2026 at 4:30pm. Under Wis. Stat. § 70.075, you'll need comparable 2025 sales, documentation of your home's condition, and any corrections to errors on the assessor's records. The whole process can be done in about 2 minutes with the right data — here's how.
You're not appealing your tax bill. You're appealing the assessed value of your home, which is what the city believes your property was worth as of January 1, 2026, based on sales that happened in 2025.
The City of Madison Assessor uses a process called mass appraisal. They run statistical models across thousands of homes to estimate values in bulk. It's efficient, but it can't see inside your house. It doesn't know your basement floods, your foundation has cracks, or your kitchen hasn't been updated since 1987. Studies of mass appraisal consistently show individual home assessments can be off by as much as 20% in either direction.
If your assessment is too high, you'll pay more than your fair share of property taxes for the entire year. Appealing is the only way to fix that.
The objection deadline for 2026 is May 15, 2026 at 4:30pm. This is a hard deadline. If your objection arrives at 4:31pm, the Board of Assessors will not consider it. Don't wait until the last day.
The single most persuasive piece of evidence in any property tax appeal is comparable sales — recent sales of homes similar to yours, in your neighborhood, that sold for less than your assessed value.
Good comps share key characteristics with your home: similar square footage (within about 20%), similar age, similar lot size, same neighborhood or one nearby, and sold within the last 12-18 months. Wisconsin assessments are based on January 1 market value using the prior calendar year's sales, so 2025 sales are what matters for your 2026 assessment.
You can pull sales data directly from the City of Madison Assessor's public records, but going through thousands of records by hand to find the right comps is the part most people give up on.
Comps establish the market. Your home's specific condition explains why it should be assessed below or at the low end of that market. Take photos of:
If you've gotten contractor quotes for repairs, save those — they're concrete evidence of the dollar amount your home would need to reach "average condition."
In Madison, objections are filed by emailing openbook@cityofmadison.com before the deadline. Your objection should include your property address, parcel number, your opinion of value (what you think the home is actually worth), the comparable sales supporting your number, and any condition documentation.
This is governed by Wis. Stat. § 70.075, which sets up the Board of Assessors process specifically for cities Madison's size.
After you file, the Board of Assessors does an individual appraisal of your property. This is the step where, if you've made a strong case, you have the best chance of getting a meaningful reduction. Meetings run from June through the fall.
You'll get a written decision. If they reduce your assessment, you're done — your tax bill in December will reflect the new number.
If you disagree with the Board of Assessors' decision, you can take your case to the Board of Review under Wis. Stat. § 70.47. This is a more formal, quasi-judicial hearing where you present sworn testimony. Most homeowners don't need to go this far, but the option exists if your case is strong and you didn't get a fair shake at the first stage.
The objections that get denied usually share one of three problems: no comparable sales (just a complaint about the number being "too high"), comps that aren't actually comparable, or a missed deadline. Don't be that homeowner.
We pulled all 2,668 real 2025 sales records from the City of Madison Assessor and built a free tool that walks you through the whole process — finding the right comps, documenting condition issues, and generating a ready-to-send objection email. Use our free tool at mycitymadeeasy.com to check your assessment and build your objection in 2 minutes. No signup, no cost.