Team Skally’s Market Update | Special Edition - County Tax Assessments
We’ve been getting quite a few phone calls lately about the Property Valuation Notices that friends and clients have been receiving in the mail. Here is an example of a home we evaluated that illustrates the situation well. The County had the value change increasing by 17%! “How could our home have gone up 17% in one year?” was the question we received. If we use the median sold price as a proxy, it would suggest homes values went up more like 8%. At a glance one might suspect the County is overstating your home’s value, however, in reality, the County is playing catch-up and overcorrecting for wild swings in valuations over the last few years.
To better understand what’s happening with valuations today, it’s important to look back a few years, and what we’ve found is Covid is the culprit. In 2021, as you may recall, there was a lot of shock and awe when proposed 2022 values were coming in 40%+ over the previous year. While there was a real estate boom post-Covid, most homes appreciated more in the high 20s to low 30% range. So overvaluation and concerns about excessive tax obligations were real.
The next year, the County recognized the overvaluation and overcorrected again, in most cases reducing values by 20%+. Then this year, recognizing values were too low relative to true market value, they overcorrected by increasing values in the 15-20% range.
Historically, true market and tax valuation has tracked very closely, usually with tax valuation trailing market value. Therefore, everyone was more or less “ok” with their valuation. Since 2021, however, the wild swings have created confusion, anxiety, and a plethora of appeals to King County.
Back in 2021 and 2022, we helped several folks appeal their proposed values with some success. Given the high increases in proposed tax valuation for 2025 many are asking us again if appeals are worthwhile. The short answer is, probably not. An analysis of homes in our neighborhood demonstrates that, despite the sharp increases, the proposed values are still trailing the true market value of their homes.
If you’d like us to look at your home specifically, feel free to reach out. In the meantime, we thought this fun fact would help you turn the tax value notice frown upside down, in other words, make you smile….since 2015, the median sold price on the Eastside has gone from $682K to $1.62M, a 138% increase! So if you own your home keep remembering all of the amazing lifestyle benefits of your home and location and keep smiling about the financial benefits you have received as well.
As we often say, love where you live and cheers to winning!
Matt & Christina
Matt & Christina are Team Skally, top real estate agents in the Seattle Metro with expertise in luxury homes on the Eastside including Bellevue, Newcastle, Mercer Island, Renton and Issaquah. Their client testimonials say it all - they deliver exceptional service and record-breaking results. Recognized as top agents on social media by Property Sparks, Diamond Award winners for best client service, Nextdoor’s Neighborhood Faves and regularly featured in online and print publications including Greet - Newcastle & Newport Hills Magazine. In addition to serving clients, Matt and Christina love family time with their two boys and two Goldendoodles as well as volunteering in the community.