Property Reassessment

September 12, 2008

Realtor: Most Harveys Lake homes sell for under $200,000

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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Tired of the perception that all homes at Harveys Lake are selling for big bucks, Realtor Michelle Boice compiled a record of all sales that occurred in 2006 and 2007.

Out of the 77 residences that sold in both years, two-thirds sold for under $200,000.

The 41 properties that sold in 2006 ranged from sales of $12,000 to $1.275 million, with an average price of $208,590.

The average price dips to $169,156 when the lowest and highest sales are removed from the equation, she said.

The average price in 2007 was $215,668 among the 36 sales ranging from $36,551 to $674,000, she said.

“There’s a misconception that we’re all wealthy and sitting in mansions out here,” said Boice, who has become an outspoken critic of Luzerne County’s reassessment.

Boice said she found only two residential properties that sold in the million-dollar range over the past five years, and she said these were “exceptional” properties.

“Many people here had their land alone assessed at $400,000. The reassessment company cannot defend this,” Boice said.

Tim Barr, of the county’s reassessment company, 21st Century Appraisals Inc., said he agrees with Boice’s sales analysis.

“We haven’t valued the whole lake at $500,000. There are individual neighborhoods selling for those kinds of numbers, but the majority of the lake is selling for much less,” Barr said.

Barr looked at four years worth of sales that were used for 21st Century’s formulas at Harveys Lake. The average sales price, adjusted to the reassessment’s effective date of Jan. 1, 2008, was $208,000, he said.

He researched the new values for all 1,800 residential properties in the borough and said 65 percent have been valued under $200,000.

Barr said the borough has received lots of publicity over the remaining 35 percent, and some of the properties that fall into this category will be adjusted based on new information and formal appeals.

There are two primary reasons adjustments will be granted, according to Barr:

• Some of the properties are on the fringes of the highest-valued sections carved out by the 21st Century for valuation purposes, and they may have been placed into the wrong one.

• Also, properties in neighborhoods along Lakeside Drive were usually valued with the presumption that they had shoreline access or rights to use the shoreline across from their homes. Luzerne County’s reassessment project did not include costly, extensive research on deed history to determine which properties have shoreline privileges, Barr said.

“We’re on the same page with Michelle’s figures. It’s just that individual properties have to be dealt with through the appeals process,” Barr said.

Barr said the average sale price of all properties over $200,000 was $426,000. The average value that 21st Century assigned to this group of properties was $432,000, he said.

“We’re about a percent higher, but we’re also not done with formal appeals,” Barr said.

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