Assessed values vs. sales prices

Jeffrey Fremont snatched up a well-kept, two-bedroom in Forty Fort for $112,000 the day it went on the market last month, aware that another interested buyer was waiting in the wings.

Fremont, a psychologist with experience buying and selling properties, said he thought the purchase price was fair and accurate.

But Luzerne County came up with a significantly lower assessed value for the property during last year’s reassessment – $61,500.

“I don’t know how they arrived at that assessment. The house is in excellent condition,” Fremont said.

Joann Maculloch had the opposite experience, buying a property with a significantly higher assessment. Last month she paid $4,000 – the appraised amount – for a quarter-acre in Lehman Township. The assessment: $26,300.

These are two of the extreme sales-versus-assessment gaps found in a Times Leader review of 163 property purchases recorded in Luzerne County since March 1. To be fair, the review excluded mortgage foreclosure and back-tax sales, $1 transactions and sales involving buyers and sellers with the same last names.

Of the 163 sales, about 67 percent – or 110 – had gaps of more than 10 percent between sales prices and assessments.

About 40 percent, or 66 of the sales in the sample group, strayed 20 percent or more from the assessments.

Some of the values had been set by Luzerne County’s reassessment company, 21st Century Appraisals Inc., while others were later adjusted by county assessment appeals boards.

Former Luzerne County commissioner Todd Vonderheid’s property was in the sample group, with a sales price 56.7 percent higher than the assessment.

Vonderheid and his wife sold their century-old restored brick home on West River Street in Wilkes-Barre last month for $520,000.

Vonderheid said the appeal board granted the reduction because his appraiser valued the property around $331,900 based on the assessments of similar-sized homes in the same neighborhood, the “riverside historic” district.

The mantra of the reassessment was that property values were supposed to be uniform with others in the same neighborhood, Vonderheid said. He estimated school, county and city taxes on the property will increase from $4,500 to about $7,600 with the $331,900 assessment.

Another seller, Jeffrey Kurtz of Reykur Associates Inc., had two properties in the sample, both with assessments twice as high as the price he fetched in the market.

Kurtz said he was eager to unload the properties because he’s getting out of the rental business, but he kept both properties on the market for several months trying to get the best price.

The first, a three-bedroom unit among eight 1923 row homes, sold for $30,000 but was assessed at $67,400.

“Even owners who put sunroom additions on their units never sold for $60,000,” said Kurtz, who never got around to appealing the assessment.

His apartment building in the 300 block of West Green Street in West Hazleton was assessed at $168,000 and sold for $85,000.

“I put it on the market and had no activity. This is what the market brought,” Kurtz said.

The 163 sales included two in Harveys Lake, where protests against unfairly high values have been the loudest. One property was assessed at $77,300 and sold for $88,500. The other was assessed at $115,300 and sold for $104,500.

Some of the sales and values were right on, with differences as small as few hundred dollars.

For example, a newer 3,063-square-foot home on Fawn Drive in Dallas was assessed at $384,200 and sold last month for $385,000.

A 1930s four-bedroom home on Sutton Road in Kingston Township sold for $360,000 – only $800 less than the assessment.

21st Century representative Tim Barr and county assessment appeals board Chairman Andy Shiner caution that a larger sample group and expert analysis would be needed to form conclusions about the accuracy and sustainability of the new assessments.

The State Tax Equalization Board prepares a yearly real estate market study to determine how much the assessments are deviating from actual sales.

Shiner said Luzerne County officials plan to update assessments every five years to stay on top of growth and decline in the real estate market.

How to challenge your assessment

Luzerne County property owners who believe their assessments are inaccurate may file appeals any year. Appeal forms are available in the assessor’s office, which is located in the assessor’s office at the courthouse in Wilkes-Barre. Forms are available on-line at www.luzernecounty.org (click on departments and then assessor’s office).

Reductions take effect the year after appeals are filed, which means property owners who file this year will receive reductions in 2010. Sept. 1 is the filing deadline.

Jennifer Learn-Andes, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7333.