Sequim Real Estate in Sequim, Washington
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Archive for the ‘Taxes’ Category
Assessed Tax Value vs. Sales Price
Author: Chuck Marunde30 Oct
How does the assessed tax value and the sales price compare for homes in the Sequim area? This is a question I get from clients moving to Sequim, and because it’s different around the country, clients ask me if the county assessed tax value of the home they might buy is the same as fair market value or the price at which homes actually sell. In other words, would an independent bank appraisal be the same as the Clallam County Tax Assessment? If you are going to make an offer on a home, wouldn’t you like to know if the assessed tax value is a good indicator of the true FMV? Clients are willing to pay a reasonable price, but they don’t want to over pay for a home in this market.
Assessed Tax Value
Assessed Tax Value vs. Sales Price
Here are the precise sales prices and assessed tax values of the properties shown in the above graph:
| Homes Sold Sept 2011 | Sales Price | Tax Value | Percent |
| No 1 | $205,000.00 | $242,987.00 | 18.53% |
| No 2 | $209,000.00 | $299,885.00 | 43.49% |
| No 3 | $219,000.00 | $214,502.00 | 2.05% |
| No 4 | $220,000.00 | $207,711.00 | 5.59% |
| No 5 | $229,500.00 | $280,156.00 | 22.07% |
| No 6 | $230,000.00 | $308,911.00 | 34.31% |
| No 7 | $265,000.00 | $255,951.00 | 3.41% |
| No 8 | $265,000.00 | $262,322.00 | 1.01% |
| No 9 | $343,250.00 | $297,338.00 | 13.38% |
| No 10 | $450,000.00 | $383,216.00 | 14.84% |
| No 11 | $500,500.00 | $350,585.00 | 29.95% |
| No 12 | $835,000.00 | $704,755.00 | 15.60% |
| Average | $285,113.00 | $282,142.18 | 1.04% |
Assessed Tax Value Not Always True Fair Market Value
As you can see, the relationship between assessed tax value and the sales price of homes (sales price determines the ultimate true FMV) is not equal from home to home. The County Assessors do not have the time or resources to appraise homes as thoroughly as certified loan appraisers. The tax assessor’s office often does “curb appraisals” as they drive by the tens of thousands of homes they must assess. Sometimes they get it right. Sometimes they are too low. Sometimes too high, and once in a while they are way off. That’s the nature of cursory tax assessments. They are not appraisals. (The 12 homes in this list include all Sequim homes sold in September of 2011 above the price of $200,000.)
Notice the percentages. The difference between the actual sales price and the county assessment is shown in the fourth column, and the difference from home to home varies from 1% to 43%. Some are off by 18%, others by 22%, 34% 29% and so on. There is no consistency from home to home, but as might be expected with statistics, when you put them all together, the average comes out to only a 1% difference. But averages are not what sellers put in their bank accounts. Statistical averages mean very little to an individual buyer or seller.
I recommend taking a look at the assessed tax value before making an offer, but the number is just more information. It is not definitive, and it is not necessarily the true FMV.
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How the New First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Works
Author: Chuck Marunde8 Aug
There is a tax credit for first time home buyers. Under the new housing bill, home buyers who have not owned a home in the last three years will be eligible for a tax credit equal to 10 percent of the purchase price up to a maximum of $7,500.
Here’s how it works:
- The credit is $3,750 for married couples filing separately. Unmarried people who jointly purchase a home will be able to divide the $7,500 credit.
- This program is actually a loan, which home buyers must repay over 15 years at zero percent interest beginning in the second year after they purchase the home. A home buyer who qualified for the whole credit would pay $500 for 15 years or about $41.67 per month.
- The credit applies only to homes purchased on or after April 9, 2008, and before July 1, 2009.
- High-income home buyers don’t qualify: Eligibility begins phasing out for single filers with adjusted income of more than $75,000 and $150,000 for joint filers. It completely phases out at $95,000 for singles and $170,000 for married couples filing jointly.
There you have it. It’s not a gift, but a loan. Still, it might help some first time home buyers get into their home, and as Martha Stewart often said before her incarceration, “That’s a good thing.”
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Reward and Punishment
Author: Chuck Marunde4 May
Once upon a time there was a little red hen who scratched around the barnyard until she uncovered some grains of wheat. She called her friends together and said, If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?Not I, said the cow.
Not I, said the duck.
Not I, said the pig.
Not I, said the goose.
Not I, said the duck.
Not my classification, said the pig.
I’d lose my seniority, said the cow.
I’d lose my unemployment compensation, said the goose.
That would be overtime for me, said the cow.
I’d lose my welfare benefits, said the duck.
I’m a dropout and never learned how, said the pig.
If I’m to be the only helper, that’s discrimination, said the goose.
Then I will, said the little red hen. She baked five loaves and held them up for her neighbors to see. They all wanted some–in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, Now I can eat the five loaves myself.
Excess profits! yelled the cow.
Capitalist leech cried the duck.
I demand my equal rights shouted the goose.
The pig grunted. Then they hurriedly painted unfair picket signs and marched around, shooting obscenities.
The government agent came and said to the little red hen, You must not be greedy.
But I earned the bread, said the little red hen.
Exactly, said the agent. That is the wonderful free-enterprise system. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But, under regulations the productive workers must divide their product with the idle.
And they lived happily ever after. But the little red hen’s neighbors wondered why she never again baked bread.
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