To raise the valuation of my property by nearly 80% over 12 months is an outrage. There is no scenario where that is even remotely possible. It seems like the County has decided it needs more revenue and the easiest way is to unfairly raise property values in order to collect higher taxes rather than explore other sources of revenue.
While it is expected that property values will increase over time, a more appropriate appreciation is 4% to 7% per year, not 80%. Even with a real estate market here that is indeed growing at a faster than normal rate due to abnormal outside factors, to expect that growth to continue at this kind of rate is a false premise and when growth slows or stops, and it will, we will be left with inflated values that cannot be sustained and the County will be forced to lower valuations accordingly, thus erasing any gains made today. That could lead to future budget shortfalls that could be devastating.
The major influence in this real estate market that is growing at a higher than normal rate is the influx of properties being built as, or being turned into, short term rentals and second homes. These properties are creating a false rate of growth that will inevitably reverse itself and leave the County with zero additional or negative revenue from property taxes. Rather than force full time, owner-occupied properties to subsidize that section of the market, there should be sufficient STR fees and tax rates to compensate for this unacceptably high rate of increase in property valuations.
My property was appraised in March 2022 and came in at around 25% less than the current County valuation. While I consider that to actually be rather high for the market at that time, about 30%, it was a sign that there has been a higher than normal growth rate. Now, according to several local real estate professionals, there is an expected downturn in the market, and they anticipate a large number of properties to come up for sale in the coming 3-5 months. This will create an effective decrease in market values and will therefore make the current valuations highly inaccurate and unfair.
I expect that the market value of my property might even drop below the March 2022 appraised value.
Generally speaking, the County assessed value of a property is almost always less than the market value. Under that scenario, my property should have a market value higher than the stated [appraised] value. Given that I have a 2022 appraisal, and that the County valuation has historically been around 15-20% less than market value, I could accept a county valuation of around 20% less than the currently proposed valuation, allowing for reasonable equity growth rate over the past 12 months. That should result in an estimated tax of about 15% less than proposed.
I am not the only one that has been adversely affected by this faulty logic from the county. File your protest.
Gary Hardin
Pagosa Springs, CO