King County Taxes: Too High or Too Low?

The Seattle Times had an article today about property taxes. The article: Assessor asks: Were tax bills too low? Is obviously an attempt to raise more money for the county

Lloyd Hara, King County Assessor says his office is looking into the following categories:

• properties on which assessed values didn't change from one year to the next amid a volatile housing market
• properties valued below the price for which they sold
• "personal property" such as art collections on which corporations and wealthy individuals may have failed to pay tax.

But I ask, why not look into properties valued above what they sold for at the same time? If you can back charge some property owners, as the article suggests, do you refund others who have sold, or would the refund go to the current property owner?

A former tax assessor, Harley Hoppe, has been assisting Hara with his efforts to resolve the tax deficit that looms for next year. Hoppe "said he is personally aware of "thousands" of undervalued properties. As part of his consulting business, Hoppe monitors assessment records and property sales.

I have another question. Doesn't the county monitor assessment records and property sales? Why haven't they come up with something before now? And what are the figures?

I did a little tax search myself this morning using tax information available through the NWMLS. I took a typical home in the Ravenna Wedgwood area which sold recently. Then I asked for 50 comparable sales within 2 miles of this property that sold and closed any time since January 1, 2009. The tax data gives both the assessed value and the sold price and well as the assessed value ratio and other information. Here is that document.

I averaged the assessed value ratios and came up with 0.943438. To me that means that in a sampling of 50 properties in a typical Seattle neighborhood, the average sales price was only 93.4% of the assessed value. If homes are selling for less than assessed value, then the assessed value is too high.

If someone knows of, and tells the assessor that there are thousands of under-assessed properties in King County, then by all means, find out why that is so, and go to the people that under-assessed those properties and find out why. It doesn't seem to me that the fault lies with the property owners that were under-assessed. What do you think?