Rittenhouse Appraisals

05/12/2026

Final post in our AI and property tax series. The last two critical limitations affecting commercial property owners:

5️⃣ Data scarcity: Critical information such as rents, occupancy rates, and operating costs often remain private. AI can’t accurately assess what it can’t access. Many jurisdictions also lack the technology infrastructure to feed quality data into these systems.

6️⃣ Inadequate oversight: Most tax departments haven’t budgeted for AI training or professional oversight. Without human experts review AI outputs, errors compound and inaccuracies persist unchecked.

The bottom line? AI is a tool, not a solution. Until it can account for market complexity and real0time conditions, human expertise remains essential for fair assessments. Read our complete analysis at https://zurl.co/xQJYm

04/28/2026

Continuing our series on AI and property tax assessments. Two more reasons commercial property owners should be concerned:

3️⃣ The black box problem: AI decision-making lacks transparency. Without visibility into how valuations are calculated, identifying and correcting errors becomes nearly impossible. How do you challenge an assessment you can’t understand?

4️⃣ Methodology inconsistency: AI requires standardized frameworks to function. For emerging property types like data centers or properties with unique characteristics, lack of comparable data leads to unreliable assessments.

Technology should improve accuracy, not create new problems. Our article examines what’s at stake when algorithms replace experienced assessors. https://zurl.co/jVhEQ

04/21/2026

In many places AI is transforming how property tax assessments are done. But is that a good thing for commercial property owners?

While AI promises accuracy and efficiency, it has serious limitations when valuing real estate. Two critical concerns:

1️⃣ Unique characteristics get lost: Properties have distinctive features. Think of location nuances, tenant mix, condition, market positioning. AI struggles to weight each appropriately. Cookie-cutter algorithms can’t capture what makes each property unique.

2️⃣ Past data misleads: AI learns from historical trends, but property valuation isn’t linear. Economic disruptions, changing use patterns, and market shocks don’t follow predictable patterns. Training AI on the past doesn’t prepare it for today’s market realities.

Our latest article explores why commercial property owners should proceed cautiously as AI becomes more prevalent in tax assessments. https://zurl.co/HEDj0

04/16/2026

Connecting with likeminded entrepreneurs and business professionals is always a winning combination. Rittenhouse Appraisals was proud to be part of the Business Leaders Forum Expo at the The Union League of Philadelphia.

04/07/2026

The Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) has issued a new report on the successes of the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement (PHARE) Fund.

The report includes profiles of individual counties, plus multi county and statewide reports.

PHARE awarded nearly $177 million between 2022 and 2024, which was used to create or preserve an estimated 8,268 affordable housing units.

However it is important to note that while the $177 million is significant, the program is oversubscribed every year. Requests exceed the available funds by about 2.5x.

A new PHFA report, Building Opportunity: PHARE funding trends and county profiles (2022-2024), highlights the success and reach of the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement (PHARE) Fund.

Individual county profiles, along with multicounty and statewide reports, can be viewed at https://www.phfa.org/housingstudy/.

Key findings include:
📍 Between 2022 and 2024, PHARE awarded nearly $177 million which were used to create or preserve an estimated 8,268 affordable housing units.
📍 PHARE funding helps grantees leverage additional public and private funding. The state’s $177 million investment through PHARE leveraged approximately $1.8 billion in additional funding.
📍 PHARE is successful at targeting state funds at the highest need populations: approximately $126 million dollars of the $177 million awarded were reserved for assisting households at or below 50% Area Median Income.
📍 The program is oversubscribed every year; requests outpace available funds by a factor of about 2.5. Over the period of the study, requests exceeded $435 million, while only $177 million was awarded.
📍 Since the need is so large, the program often partially funds projects to stretch already limited resources. Between 2022 and 2024, PHFA could only fully fund 27% of PHARE applicants, with 51% receiving partial awards and 27% remaining unfunded.

03/31/2026

Local Lens: Seeing Value Others Miss

At Rittenhouse Appraisals, we don’t just analyze data, we walk the streets throughout the Greater Delaware Valley market, understanding market nuances that numbers alone can’t show.

That’s the power of using a local appraisal firm.

03/26/2026

Live in Philadelphia’s PA suburbs and think your property tax assessment is too high? You have until August 2026 to file an appeal for 2027.

If you want to appeal, you’ll need a property appraisal to support your case.

Talk to Rittenhouse Appraisals about your property and your options. We can help you through the entire tax savings process from beginning to end.

03/25/2026

Where are market fundamentals headed? Which neighborhoods are poised for growth?

Before investing in a real estate project, owners and developers need answers. Our market analysis and feasibility studies help uncover emerging opportunities and determine if proposed developments make economic sense.

Real estate appraisers do more than value property. We help you identify where to invest next.

03/24/2026

Next in our Women’s History Month series.

Today the word “cashier” may sound like an entry-level bank position. But in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the bank cashier held the most important position in the institution, overseeing all financial transactions and serving as the public face of the bank.

This is why Mabel Z. Mollison’s appointment is so significant. From 1892 to 1908, Mollison served as cashier of Lincoln Savings Bank in Vicksburg and later Greenville, Mississippi, making her the first African American woman, and arguably the first woman, to hold this banking position.

By 1900 only a handful of U.S. banks even had “ladies departments” or separate spaces where women could conduct banking business. Few women worked in banks at all, even in these segregated spaces.

Yet Mollison, who had business training from Oberlin Business College, held the bank’s top operational role. She managed the financial transactions for Lincoln Saving Bank, which was Mississippi’s first African American-owned bank and among the charter members of the Mississippi Negro Bankers Association.

03/19/2026

📊 50 properties across 5 states = 50 different property tax bills to monitor. Miss one deadline or overlook one overvaluation, and you're paying more than you should for years.

Our blog explains why multi-state portfolio owners are leaving significant money on the table—and the systematic approach to capturing those savings. Read our insights https://zurl.co/0QyHe