At the time of this writing (January 15), Revaluation 2007 is nearly complete. Nearly 700 assessment notices were mailed out to lake area owners by Vision Appraisal Technologies in late November. About 10% of property owners took advantage of the informal conferences offered in December to review their assessments. Notices with the results of the conferences were sent out in mid-January to everyone who met with Vision. According to Vision, many of the assessments were reduced. Vision is making a few additional adjustments to some of the pricing factors based on feedback given at the conferences. Additional notices will be sent to notify property owners whose assessments are affected by these adjustments.

To get a preliminary estimate of its impact on lake area properties, I did a survey of the nearly 700 properties on or close to the lake using the information provided on the Vision website. This analysis, summarized on the nearby chart, doesn’t reflect more recent assessment adjustments which will tend to reduce assessments somewhat. With that caveat, here’s a summary of the results:

The average increase for all owners this time is 68% - high but much less than the 100% increase in ’02. It also tracks the 70% median price increase for lake properties over the five-year period since the last revaluation. For all of Winchester, the median increase for single family homes was 40%.

Waterfront owners fared the best with an increase of only 58% - in 2002 the increase was in the 150% range. Due to an adjustment in the land valuation factors, Wheeler Point assessments increased only 35%, and most of that was related to increases in building values. Vision corrected a “glitch” in the old valuation model that whacked Wheeler Point with a 275% increase in ’02.

Water access properties – those who cross a road to get to their waterfronts - got the worst of this revaluation with an average increase of 153%, somewhat reversing the modest 40% increase in ’02. Based on Vision’s analysis of actual sales, water access properties were severely underassessed.

Properties without water access properties increased 64%, generally tracking higher sales prices of all properties around the lake.

Vision made several changes in the pricing factors used to establish land values. Water access properties have been placed in three view categories – excellent, good or no view – and “special pricing factors” have been applied to reflect values of having water access under different view conditions. Special pricing factors were also applied to some non-water access properties considered to have views. These properties were placed in one of five view categories – excellent +, excellent, very good, good or partial – each with a different pricing factor. Properties were categorized by Vision through visual inspections of each and every property in town.

You would be well advised to examine your property record to see if and how your land was categorized. If you are blessed with a view of the lake or distant hills, at least according to Vision Appraisal Technologies, your land assessment may be considerably higher than it would be otherwise.

Another result of the visual inspections was many adjustments to property “Condition Factors.” The C Factor has a nominal value of 1.0 (no impact) and is used by the assessor to adjust for negative value-affecting characteristics such as steep topography, difficult road access, easements, etc. For example, a property with unusually steep slopes assigned a C Factor of .8 would have a land assessment that is 20% lower than a more typical gently sloping lake property. In general, Vision used a more stringent standard on setting C factors with the current revaluation, raising the land assessments on many properties that had been given lower C factors under the 2002 revaluation or the Board of Assessment Appeals.

In the course of revaluing the 700 lake properties, not to mention the rest of the town, in a short period of time, Vision made some errors and misjudgments on individual properties. Placing values and judgments on views and slopes are especially difficult. Many of these have been corrected following the conferences held in December. For those who still disagree with their assessments, I recommend making an appeal to Board of Assessment Appeals. See the article “Appealing Your Assessment – Your Next Chance” for more information on this subject.

We won’t know the exact impact of the revaluation on our taxes until the new Grand List is formally established by the Town in April and the new mill rate has been calculated. To provide some guidance on what to expect, I made a projection of the new Grand List using preliminary data from the current revaluation. As shown on the nearby chart, the current Grand List ($588M) would increase 40% to $923M and mill rate would drop from 34.27 to 24.50. The average lake taxpayer currently paying $4,832 (141K X 34.27 mills) would have a tax increase of about 20% to $5,806 (237K X 24.50 mills). Property owners whose assessments increased 40% or less would pay the same or less than they are now paying. About one in seven taxpayers fall into that category. By comparison, the 2002 revaluation increased lake area taxes by an average of 60% and, other than a few folks on West Wakefield Boulevard, everybody’s taxes increased.