Sammamish property values down 16 percent
June 27, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
New June 27, 1:39 p.m.
When Margaret Rosenow bought her single-family home with her husband Gary in 1980, the house was worth about $170,000.
Like many families in Sammamish, the Rosenows have seen their home increase in value over the years, but that trend halted this summer. Now Sammamish homeowners, like residents all across the county, have seen their properties dip in value.
Between 2007 and 2009, the Rosenows’ property jumped in value $147,000, or about 26 percent. But the 2010 assessment was a more sobering change: in a single year, the Rosenows’ property lost about 16 percent of its value.
“The last time, it went up really high. It should have already gone down last year,” Rosenow said, adding that she’s more worried about her property tax than her property value. “Assessment at the moment is not that important to me because I’m not going to sell it.”
Debra Prins, who specializes in residential property appraisals for the King County Department of Assessments, said Sammamish properties would be down 16 percent on average.
Prins said this year’s assessments were more accurate to the housing market of today, in part because the assessor’s office changed the way it calculates home values. In addition to its typical statistical analysis and limited physical inspections, the assessor’s office dropped property values down another 15 percent from its January 2009 value, she said.
“We wanted to make certain that we were taking in consideration all vagaries of this market,” she said. “We believe there were things our (past) evaluation models did not take into consideration.”
The assessments were more than a year behind in reflecting the dramatic slowdown in home sales or the dropping in prices, Prins explained.
Interim King County Assessor Rich Medved said the average sales price of a home in the county had dropped from a high of $710,000 to $615,000.
Medved said his office began sending out assessments June 11. The assessments released this summer would affect property taxes for 2010, although the relationship between assessments and property taxes is different in Washington than in most other states, according to Medved.
“Most states in the United States are what we call rate-based systems,” Medved said.
In rate-based systems, there is a direct correlation between the value of a home and how much a taxing district, like a city, will charge in property taxes.
But Washington has a budget-based system, Medved said. King County has 160 taxing districts, including cities, school boards, the Port of Seattle and King County, among others, and those taxing districts determine how much many they will require through taxes. In other words, the taxing district sets how much money it would need and then the tax rate is adjusted to collect that amount.
The property assessments affect property taxes in the context of relative worth; if the Rosenows’ property value drops more than their neighbors’, then they could see a drop in property taxes. If a taxing district opted to collect a smaller annual amount, that, too, would lessen someone’s property taxes. The reverse is true, too, according to Medved.
“It’s still very possible that you could see an increase in your tax bill next year,” Medved said, adding that taxes are directly impacted by voter-approved tax increases. “Voters have the right to impose additional taxes on themselves.”
King County Councilwoman Kathy Lambert, who represents Sammamish as well Issaquah, Redmond, North Bend and parts of rural King County, said she’s worried about how people might interpret the news that their property values are down. She said she has heard from residents who think lower property values will mean lower property taxes.
“I’m very, very nervous. When I try to explain how property taxes work, people get very upset,” she said. “A lot of people don’t understand that when they vote for a levy of any sort, that is above what the county does.”
Sammamish Finance Director Lyman Howard said property taxes from the city were stable and would not experience a large impact due to changing property values. At most, the City Council could vote to increase the amount the city collects through property taxes by 1 percent. The City Council would have to decide whether to raise property taxes by Dec. 3 in accordance with state law, Howard said.
Medved said people should know that they have 60 days to file an appeal if they believe an assessment isn’t accurate. To reach the King County Department of Assessments, call 206-296-7300.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
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