Chief
10-21-2007, 04:47 PM
http://www.theolympian.com/news/story/249228.html
Jim Szymanski
The Olympian
Joan Carstens' first thought when she received her property assessment in the mail was to appeal for a reduction.
"It was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to be at the assessor's office Monday morning," said Carstens, a registered nurse.
The assessed value of her 1,376-square-foot, one-bedroom Olympia home, which overlooks a lagoon, jumped almost 51 percent, from $156,000 to $235,500, she said. And that didn't include the value of the land it's sitting on.
She knew the assessment would rise, but she was shocked by the size of the increase.
Carstens is not alone among Thurston County property owners. The assessor's office reports a high volume of telephone and in-person inquiries about this year's notices. Nov. 9 is the deadline to appeal.
Rising prices for houses in Thurston County and a home-construction boom in recent years have combined to raise assessments, which are based on land and home sales the previous year. In the past three years, the median price of a home in the county has increased 39 percent, from $185,000 in September 2004 to $258,000 in September 2007, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
This year's assessments reflect the increase in home prices. The assessed value of the average house in Thurston County rose a record 18.9 percent this year.
The assessed value of raw land rose 41 percent, and the value of new construction was $1 billion in 2006, up from a more-typical annual range of $200 million to $400 million.
Despite higher assessments, relatively few property owners have appealed in recent years.
About 1 percent of the county's 113,500 property owners are likely to appeal, county Assessor Pat Costello said. Appeals go to a three-member Board of Equalization, appointed by the county commission and unaffiliated with the assessor's office.
Property owners who appeal face a long-shot chance of getting a reduction.
"From our experience, of the appeals that are filed, the board has disagreed with us on about 10 percent of the appeals," said Dennis Pulsipher, the county's chief deputy assessor.
Some appeals fail to qualify for review, while others are settled between taxpayer and assessor. Of the cases that are heard, roughly one-third result in lowered assessments, said Ruth Elder, clerk of the county Board of Equalization.
The low success rate of appeals may not discourage real estate agent Mark Lovrien. He said the assessment on his waterfront property on Lohrer Lane N.E. in Olympia increased nearly 41 percent.
"It's kind of a gouge," Lovrien said of his assessment notice. He is mulling whether to appeal.
"I don't think the (comparable) sales will support it," he said. Lovrien declined to discuss the dollar value of his home and land.
After checking records, Pulsipher said Lovrien's property was assessed at $473 a square foot, in line with assessments of $450 to $488 a square foot for neighboring properties.
State law requires the assessor to value property at 100 percent of market value. Actual assessments are somewhat less than that because they lag behind market activity by almost a year.
For example, assessors used 2006 sales data to determine values as of Jan. 1, 2007, Pulsipher said. The assessment notices were mailed in the past two weeks. In the meantime, home and land values have been rising to present day.
"We're typically at a level of ninety-three percent of market value," said Gene Widmer, chief appraiser in the assessor's office. "If we're at the ninety three percent level, a lot fewer properties could be potentially overassessed."
The county uses sales data to reassess property every year. It also sends appraisers to inspect individual properties every six years to check the accuracy of its property records.
On physical inspections, appraisers look for aging of properties, additions to property or buildings that might have been demolished, and features, such as a porch, that might have been missed on the prior inspection, Widmer said.
In assessing property, appraisers factor in land and home sales records of nearby properties. They also account for neighborhood variations that might make a home in one area more valuable than a similar home in a different neighborhood, Widmer said.
There also are what Widmer called "adjustments" that reduce an assessment.
Carstens' assessment, for example, was reduced partly because its water view is limited and because nothing larger than a one-bedroom home can be built on it, Widmer said.
Even so, Carstens said she would appeal. She doesn't want to sell her 4-year-old home, and she thinks that at $387,250 for her home and land, it's overassessed.
"I still don't think you can sell a one-bedroom for (nearly) four-hundred thousand" dollars, she said.
Soaring assessments have been a popular topic of conversation during the past two weeks. Charlie Sommers of Tenino said assessments were a hot topic at a recent Kiwanis Club meeting.
Sommers' 1,600-square-foot home on a "swampy" five acres is assessed at around $300,000, up 40 percent, he said.
"All of a sudden this year, it just skyrocketed," Sommers said. "When I got the notice, I thought, 'This is not real,' " he said.
With a slowing real estate market in Tenino, Sommers said he felt his new assessment was unfair.
"Everything around here is price reduced," Sommers said. "We couldn't sell it for that ($300,000) right now. This comes as a shock to a lot of people."
Though few property owners appeal assessments, John Perry urged more to consider it.
His former summer cabin on Sunset Drive N.W. near The Evergreen State College was built in 1938 and expanded by adding four bedrooms in the mid-1960s. Perry's land, valued at $455,100, is worth far more than his home, at $159,800, he said. The property features 206 feet of waterfront.
Perry said he had tried to appeal assessments before and failed. At age 70, he does not want to sell his home.
He is considering filing an appeal in hopes of holding down his $6,200 annual property tax bill.
"People need to appeal," Perry said. "At least file an appeal and send a message."
Jim Szymanski is business editor for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-357-0748 or jszymanski@theolympian.com
Jim Szymanski
The Olympian
Joan Carstens' first thought when she received her property assessment in the mail was to appeal for a reduction.
"It was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to be at the assessor's office Monday morning," said Carstens, a registered nurse.
The assessed value of her 1,376-square-foot, one-bedroom Olympia home, which overlooks a lagoon, jumped almost 51 percent, from $156,000 to $235,500, she said. And that didn't include the value of the land it's sitting on.
She knew the assessment would rise, but she was shocked by the size of the increase.
Carstens is not alone among Thurston County property owners. The assessor's office reports a high volume of telephone and in-person inquiries about this year's notices. Nov. 9 is the deadline to appeal.
Rising prices for houses in Thurston County and a home-construction boom in recent years have combined to raise assessments, which are based on land and home sales the previous year. In the past three years, the median price of a home in the county has increased 39 percent, from $185,000 in September 2004 to $258,000 in September 2007, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
This year's assessments reflect the increase in home prices. The assessed value of the average house in Thurston County rose a record 18.9 percent this year.
The assessed value of raw land rose 41 percent, and the value of new construction was $1 billion in 2006, up from a more-typical annual range of $200 million to $400 million.
Despite higher assessments, relatively few property owners have appealed in recent years.
About 1 percent of the county's 113,500 property owners are likely to appeal, county Assessor Pat Costello said. Appeals go to a three-member Board of Equalization, appointed by the county commission and unaffiliated with the assessor's office.
Property owners who appeal face a long-shot chance of getting a reduction.
"From our experience, of the appeals that are filed, the board has disagreed with us on about 10 percent of the appeals," said Dennis Pulsipher, the county's chief deputy assessor.
Some appeals fail to qualify for review, while others are settled between taxpayer and assessor. Of the cases that are heard, roughly one-third result in lowered assessments, said Ruth Elder, clerk of the county Board of Equalization.
The low success rate of appeals may not discourage real estate agent Mark Lovrien. He said the assessment on his waterfront property on Lohrer Lane N.E. in Olympia increased nearly 41 percent.
"It's kind of a gouge," Lovrien said of his assessment notice. He is mulling whether to appeal.
"I don't think the (comparable) sales will support it," he said. Lovrien declined to discuss the dollar value of his home and land.
After checking records, Pulsipher said Lovrien's property was assessed at $473 a square foot, in line with assessments of $450 to $488 a square foot for neighboring properties.
State law requires the assessor to value property at 100 percent of market value. Actual assessments are somewhat less than that because they lag behind market activity by almost a year.
For example, assessors used 2006 sales data to determine values as of Jan. 1, 2007, Pulsipher said. The assessment notices were mailed in the past two weeks. In the meantime, home and land values have been rising to present day.
"We're typically at a level of ninety-three percent of market value," said Gene Widmer, chief appraiser in the assessor's office. "If we're at the ninety three percent level, a lot fewer properties could be potentially overassessed."
The county uses sales data to reassess property every year. It also sends appraisers to inspect individual properties every six years to check the accuracy of its property records.
On physical inspections, appraisers look for aging of properties, additions to property or buildings that might have been demolished, and features, such as a porch, that might have been missed on the prior inspection, Widmer said.
In assessing property, appraisers factor in land and home sales records of nearby properties. They also account for neighborhood variations that might make a home in one area more valuable than a similar home in a different neighborhood, Widmer said.
There also are what Widmer called "adjustments" that reduce an assessment.
Carstens' assessment, for example, was reduced partly because its water view is limited and because nothing larger than a one-bedroom home can be built on it, Widmer said.
Even so, Carstens said she would appeal. She doesn't want to sell her 4-year-old home, and she thinks that at $387,250 for her home and land, it's overassessed.
"I still don't think you can sell a one-bedroom for (nearly) four-hundred thousand" dollars, she said.
Soaring assessments have been a popular topic of conversation during the past two weeks. Charlie Sommers of Tenino said assessments were a hot topic at a recent Kiwanis Club meeting.
Sommers' 1,600-square-foot home on a "swampy" five acres is assessed at around $300,000, up 40 percent, he said.
"All of a sudden this year, it just skyrocketed," Sommers said. "When I got the notice, I thought, 'This is not real,' " he said.
With a slowing real estate market in Tenino, Sommers said he felt his new assessment was unfair.
"Everything around here is price reduced," Sommers said. "We couldn't sell it for that ($300,000) right now. This comes as a shock to a lot of people."
Though few property owners appeal assessments, John Perry urged more to consider it.
His former summer cabin on Sunset Drive N.W. near The Evergreen State College was built in 1938 and expanded by adding four bedrooms in the mid-1960s. Perry's land, valued at $455,100, is worth far more than his home, at $159,800, he said. The property features 206 feet of waterfront.
Perry said he had tried to appeal assessments before and failed. At age 70, he does not want to sell his home.
He is considering filing an appeal in hopes of holding down his $6,200 annual property tax bill.
"People need to appeal," Perry said. "At least file an appeal and send a message."
Jim Szymanski is business editor for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-357-0748 or jszymanski@theolympian.com