SDAT Real Property Search: Find Your Maryland Assessment

How do I search SDAT real property records?

1. Open the Real Property Data Search on SDAT's website. SDAT says the page now verifies your device each time you open it, then sends you on to the search.
2. Select the county the property is in. Baltimore City is listed separately from Baltimore County.
3. Pick a search method: street address, property account identifier, map/parcel, or property sales.
4. Enter the details the method asks for and open the matching record.

A deleted account can only be found by its property account identifier. SDAT's terms of use ban automated collection of the data, and the page notes that its records are for information only, so the notice SDAT mailed you is the document to rely on for dates.

What do the fields on an SDAT record mean?

SDAT publishes a glossary for its record pages. These are the fields that matter most when you are checking an assessment:

The phase-in assessment is the number your tax rate is applied to. Maryland rates are quoted per $100 of assessment, so the tax is the phase-in assessment divided by 100, times the rate.

How does the search record match your assessment notice?

The Notice of Assessment SDAT mails after a reassessment has a box headed MARKET VALUE ASSESSMENT. The Total Market Value line in the PRIOR column is the previous (base) value, and the same line in the CURRENT column is the new full value. A separate ASSESSMENT PHASE-IN box lists the phased-in value for each of the three tax years. On the search record, those figures appear as the base value, the current value and the phase-in assessments.

An increase is spread over three years, one third a year; a decrease takes effect all at once. That is why a large jump in the current value does not reach your bill in a single year.

What should I check before I appeal?

• The home's details. Compare the living area, basement, bathrooms and garage with the house as it is. SDAT says an owner can ask the local assessment office for a property worksheet showing how the living area was calculated.
• Homestead status. For the home you live in, look for an approved homestead application. The homestead tax credit holds the yearly increase in taxable assessment to 10% for the State tax and to your county's own percentage for county tax; if the record shows no application on file, ask SDAT about it.
• Principal residence. The record should say Yes for the home you live in.
• The current value against sales. Maryland's appeals boards suggest using sales of very similar nearby homes as close as possible to, but not after, the January 1 date of finality.

Our free check compares your home's assessment with similar homes nearby, so you can see how your current value sits before you decide.

When can I appeal a Maryland assessment?

When you get a new assessment notice, you can appeal it to the Supervisor of Assessments within 45 days of the notice date, online with the control number printed on the notice or on the paper form sent with it. In a year without a new notice, you can file a petition for review on or before the January 1 date of finality. After the Supervisor's decision come the county's Property Tax Assessment Appeals Board and then the Maryland Tax Court.

Filing does not delay the bill: the tax is still due on time. SDAT's taxpayers' bill of rights adds that your assessment will not be raised during the three-year cycle because of information obtained at your appeal hearing.

Each Maryland county has its own guide with the local office and its numbers. Start from the Maryland property tax guide, or go straight to Montgomery County, Baltimore County, Prince George's County, Anne Arundel County or Baltimore City. How the assessment relates to what your home would sell for is covered in assessed value vs. market value.