Yakima County assessments mirror flat real estate market
Yakima Herald-Republic
YAKIMA, Wash. ? Property value assessment cards mailed to Yakima County?s 102,000 property owners late last week generally reflect a flat real estate market for 2011, according to county Assessor Dave Cook.
Property owners who saw their year-over-year values stay the same or decline shouldn?t expect a drop in their property taxes, however, especially if they live in a city or town.
Cook said the new taxable values are for Jan. 1 of this year and do not take into account a gradual increase in home sale activity and average prices that have occurred since then.
"What is encouraging is we are seeing an appreciation of value," the longtime assessor said. "Maybe we have reached a tipping point and values will start going up again."
Sales data gathered by Headwaters-The Source of Selah show for the first eight months of this year the number of home sales increased by 161 over the same period a year ago ? an increase of 14.5 percent, to a total of 1,267. The average selling price increased by $9,500, or about 6 percent, to $169,256.
For all of 2011, the number of residential sales fell and the average sales price was $160,250, a 2.6 percent drop from 2010.
Doug Rich, broker and owner of Prestige Realty of Yakima and a board member of the Multiple Listing Service, described the housing market as a mixed bag with sales increasing in some months and declining in others.
"If I was going to characterize the market, it is real flat but showing some signs of improvement," he said.
One trend the MLS is seeing is an increase in the number of sales that require third-party approval or are a short sale, meaning the seller is offering the property for less than is owed on the loan used to purchase the property.
"It might be Yakima?s time to work those things through the process the rest of the country was seeing six quarters ago," Rich added.
Cook said the total taxable value of land in the county on which property taxes will be collected next year increased slightly more than 1 percent for 2012. Total taxable values are $13.5 billion, compared to $13.3 billion last year. The $167 million increase in taxable values includes $133 million in new construction that came on the tax rolls for this year.
The amount of new construction last year, although higher than 2010, continues to lag behind prior years. New construction in 2007 exceeded $300 million.
Cook said the one area where values increased was in farmland.
"We don?t know if it is consolidation as farmers buy land to expand their operations," he said.
What impact the assessed values have on property taxes collected next year won?t be known until taxing districts submit their operating budgets to Cook by November. It is then that Cook will calculate property tax rates that must be charged to collect those revenues for cities, the county, fire districts and other taxing districts.
A property tax increase is likely for those who live in cities because Yakima County commissioners will shift at least $2.8 million from the county road levy to the county general fund levy next year to pay debt costs on jail construction and remodeling.
City residents pay only the general fund levy, which this year amounted to $1.53 per $1,000 of assessed value. By collecting more money for the general fund levy from a relatively flat value base, property taxes will increase.
County residents will benefit from the shift because the road levy will decline, which will more than offset the increase in the general fund levy.
? David Lester can be reached at 509-577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.
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