Maine Housing Market Raises Questions Over Property Assessments
The cooling real estate market has prompted the city of Ellsworth to delay releasing new property values until late January, the Portland Press Herald reports.
Vision Appraisal just finished its revaluation of properties in Ellsworth, on the state’s upper- to mid-coast. City officials had said property owners would learn their new values in October.
Larry Gardner, who heads Ellsworth’s tax assessor, said he is reviewing all the figures. The city will try to find evidence of any “drop in the housing market” before releasing its assessments, he said.
Over the past 12 months, the median sales price of houses has experienced its fastest decline in 36 years, according to recent statistics.
“That’s one thing that we’re really, really concerned about,” Gardner said, calling it unfair to owners for the city to raise property tax rates at a value the market would not bear.
As the affordability of home mortgages continues to be called into question in the Pine Tree State, sales of single-family homes in Hancock County have dropped 11.36 percent this year over the same time period (July 1 to September 30) in 2005, the Maine Real Estate Information System reports.
The median sales price of a Hancock County single-family home dropped 16.87 percent, from $226,750 in 2005 to $188,500. But home sales in the area have yet to exhibit much movement. Gardner anticipates sending out the new assessments in late January.
“Hopefully, by then we’ll have seen enough trending information,” he said.
Area home appraisal officials issued their preliminary figures to the City Council last month, showing significant increases in property values over the last assessment, which took place in 1990.
For example, the median sales price for an acre of nonwaterfront land in Ellsworth is $35,000, a 300 percent increase. Nonwaterfront residential properties exhibited 91 percent appreciation to an average sale price of $156,500. Gardner said Ellsworth has plenty of time for review, as the property tax bills based on the assessments aren’t mailed until August.