Pittsburgh property tax picture still grim without reassessment

After years of pandemic-driven appeals that saw Downtown properties drop in assessed value, and therefore fewer dollars in the city’s coffers, Pittsburgh is seeing a leveling off of real estate revenue.

The city collected roughly $148 million in real estate tax revenue in 2025, about $3 million less than what it earned the year before but still $4 million over budget. Collections are well above a 2023 trough.

A change in the city’s millage rate is already adding a further boost this year, City Controller Rachael Heisler said at a press conference on Friday to review her office’s audit of the city’s 2025 finances. In the first quarter of this year, real estate revenue is up $20 million compared to the same period last year, she said. The 2026 results are so far unaudited. The Office of Management and Budget will publish final results on May 15, she said.

Still, Heisler said she doesn’t expect revenue from real estate taxes to fully stabilize until a county-wide reassessment on property values takes place. The Pittsburgh Public Schools district is in court attempting to force Allegheny County to reassess, and the case was argued before the Commonwealth Court on March 4.

When COVID-19 spurred a work-from-home trend that still persists, it led to fewer workers Downtown. Around the same time, the county was compelled by a court case to lower the common level ratio used by the county Board of Property Assessment Appeals and Review to determine a property’s new assessed value after appeals. That allowed many large property owners to win nearly automatic reductions in their property tax bills.

Deed transfer tax revenue, however, “was a significant bright spot” last year, bringing in $10 million more than budgeted, Heisler said. The tax is collected when properties change hands.

The city’s revenue from earned income tax increased last year by $6.4 million despite fewer jobs in the city than 10 years ago. Heisler attributed the increase to higher pay across the existing workforce.

Despite unexpected increases in certain tax revenues, the city spent more than it earned last year, a trend that Heisler attributed largely to the end of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds sent by the federal government in the wake of the pandemic. The city spent $20.1 million on ARPA-related projects in 2025, and has $12.3 million left to spend this year. She said the previous two fiscal years would have ended in deficits if not for the funding.

“In prior years, we have cautioned that the American Rescue Plan dollars masked the city’s spending problems,” Heisler said. “The mask is off.”

City expenditures increased by less than 2%, driven in part by payroll increases, including overtime.

“Salaries and overtime are not interchangeable,” Heisler said. “Having less staff who work more, particularly within public safety, leads to worse outcomes for both employer retention and quality service provision.”

Heisler also revealed at the press conference that the city spent an average of more than $1 million per month maintaining the its fleet.

Nuggets from Pittsburgh’s 2025 financial report

Earned income tax collections were up $6.4 million over 2024.
Local Services Tax collections indicate nearly 249,000 people worked in the city, up from 239,000 in 2024. But it’s lower than the 274,000 in 2016.
Deed transfer tax revenue was up $4 million from 2024.
Real estate tax revenue was down more than $3 million from 2024 but $4 million over budget.
Police traffic stops were up 52% from 2024 (for a total of 7,420). But they’re still way down from the pre-COVID norm of 20,000 or more.
In 2016, the top 10 private, taxable property holders had a taxable assessed value of $2.1 billion. In 2025 that number was $1.6 billion. This suggests a partial shift of the property tax burden from larger to smaller property owners.
Even as the Trump administration rattled higher education, Pitt and Point Park set enrollment records last year, and Pitt had the 7th-most NIH funding in the country at $670 million.

Mia Hollie is the economic development and housing reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at mia@publicsource.org.

Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

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