But the rising property values didn't follow that same trend when it comes to appeals, said Liz Fehrmann, Salt Lake County assistant tax administrator. Approximately 6,500 property owners appealed their appraisal value this year. The county received more than 7,600 appeals in 2001, Fehrmann said.

Fehrmann believes appeals didn't reach a new high because "values are underassessed in a great deal of the county."

Appraisals are based on market values in January. Things have changed in eight months, and the market "has cooled somewhat," Salt Lake County Assessor Lee Gardner said. That's why a lot of people appeal, he said. Property owners won't see the cooling off until next year's tax notices are mailed, because those will rely on market data in January 2008.

"It's not surprising," Gardner said of the appeals. "That's natural when you see a significant increase in property values. People will look at the value and go, 'Whoa, I need to appeal,' without really seeing if it's indicative of what the market is."

Each hearing can deal with one parcel or 300, so it's hard to tell exactly how many properties will be appealed. But Utah County Assessor Kris Poulson says this year's numbers could have been worse.

"If you think about it, (the requests for appeals) are about 2 percent of the taxable parcels we have," Poulson said. "That's not extremely bad."

Poulson said there is about a 5 percent margin of error on this year's valuations, and some valuations have incorrect information. For example, the county has had multiple complaints from residents who have vaulted ceilings in their homes that were counted as a second story.

Although the deadline for scheduling an appeal has passed, residents can still contact the assessor's office if the information on their notice is incorrect, Poulson said.

"If our data is wrong, that could be why our value is wrong," Poulson said. "There are areas that we haven't had a chance to review yet, but I would say, out of 20 homes that we look at, probably 18 or 19 will be (correct)."

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