A sign of sinking home prices in Snohomish County is on its way in the mail.
New values issued this week by the county assessor show an unprecedented 2 percent drop from last year.
“I don’t think I can remember a year where we’ve decreased residential values countywide since I started working here in 1987,” county assessor Cindy Portmann said. Her chief residential appraiser, Steve Lightle, said it hasn’t happened in his 35 years with the county.
The drop comes after issuing years of double-digit increases in property values. The new assessments are based on property sales in 2007, which steadily declined starting last June.
They’ve continued to slide, but the assessor freezes values as of Jan. 1, 2008, for taxes to be collected in 2009.
Each homeowner will see a different figure depending on the age, condition and location of their home and sales in the neighborhood.
A drop in assessed value won’t necessarily translate into a smaller property tax bill, warned chief deputy assessor Linda Hjelle.
“We won’t know how that affects the actual tax amounts” until next year, Hjelle said. By then, voters will have considered whether to increase their tax burden by passing local bonds and levies.
Also, cities and other taxing districts will have adopted their annual budgets, which might include increases.
The drop in assessed values reflects what’s happening in the real estate and development markets.
Citing economic reports, Portmann said the overabundance of cheap credit caused a housing bubble that inflated the price of land and housing and caused many developers to build more homes than there were buyers.
Snohomish County is weathering the tough times, she said. “In our area, we’re not seeing the massive decreases that some areas are seeing in values,” Portmann said.
Homeowners have seen double-digit increases in property values each year since 2004.
The 2 percent decrease seems to accurately reflect last year’s slide in prices, said Nathan Gorton, executive officer for Snohomish County-Camano Association of Realtors.
“That’s pretty good compared to the (national) housing market,” Gorton said.
Overall, housing prices are about 5.5 percent lower than they were 18 months ago, he said.
Based on sales figures, Snohomish County median house and condo prices dropped to $330,000 in April from $350,000 in November.
Though housing prices dropped, Portmann said commercial property in the county climbed 11 percent in value. At the same time, apartment buildings, condos, waterfront properties and properties with a view are increasing in value, she said.
County assessors inspect only pockets of Snohomish County each year and use sales information to calculate property values elsewhere. Any given property will be physically inspected only once every six years.
Even then, computers are relied upon to crunch property sales neighborhood by neighborhood.
A decrease in property value shouldn’t worry homeowners, Gorton said.
“If you look at it like a stock, then, yeah, you might panic a little bit,” he said. Homeowners who hang onto a property for five to seven years will probably make money, and some statistics show the price of a home doubles every 10 years, he said.
“We’ve got to get away from looking at houses like the stock market,” Gorton said. “There’s intrinsic value. You live there. You raise a family there. You make memories there.”
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
Property info online
New property assessments are in the mail and can be viewed at www.snoco.org by searching using the keyword “property.” Have an address or parcel number handy for the online search. Click on “View Recent Sales” to see prices by neighborhood.
How to appeal
Appeals of property assessments can be filed within 60 days with the Board of Equalization by calling 425-388-3407 or going to www.snoco.org and searching for “Equalization.”
Questions or concerns about an assessment can be directed to a county residential appraiser at 425-388-6555 or a commercial appraiser at 425-388-3706 or 425-388-3390.
Tax exemptions and deferrals
Seniors can file for property tax exemptions if they earn $35,000 or less. Seniors who earn less than $40,000 a year can defer taxes by placing a lien on their property. Anyone earning $57,000 or less may apply to defer half their tax bill as a lien on their property. Call 425-388-3433 for information.
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