Assessing Info July 3 2019

Northern homebuyers head to Florida >

Fed up with taxes in New York, retired police officer Thomas Maloney and his wife, real estate agent Theresa Hart, are looking to offload a home in Long Island — quickly. “It's been a thorn in my side for the past seven years,” Maloney said. Between regulations that favor tenants and rising city and state taxes, the couple says they're "just not comfortable" being landlords in New York. The Palm Beach County couple's story reflects a growing mood among high earners from the Northeast that it's time to cash in their real-estate chips in high-tax states and move to places like Florida, where the tax bites are less and it's cheaper to buy and maintain a home. Read more

Consultant: Reuse of

big-box stores for rec spaces a costly option >

Youth sports groups are asking for big, heated, wide-open indoor spaces for everything from tennis courts to ice rinks to a competition-sized swimming pool. Local property owners have big, heated, empty indoor spaces that are no longer wanted by Sears, Lowe’s and Gander Mountain. While it seems like a well-timed, mutually beneficial situation, a preliminary study of converting vacant big-box stores into sports/recreation facilities is far from encouraging. Read more

Santa Clara, California, assessor: 'A recession is coming' >

Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone is upbeat about the economy, but he also imparted words of caution to members of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors at a district Realtor meeting this month. “It has been nine years since the Great Recession and since then we have experienced a period of great prosperity. However, the economy has cycles, and we are overdue for a recession,” Stone said. Read more

IAAO NEWS

+ Conference Early Bird deadline is July 19 >

The Early Bird deadline is July 19 to register at a discount for 85th Annual International Conference on Assessment Administration, set for Sept. 8-11, 2019, in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. More than 110 educational sessions are scheduled at the conference and the full list is available online. United States residents are reminded a passport is required to enter Canada. Read more

+ Attend conference at a discount by volunteering >

Interested in volunteering at the IAAO Annual Conference and attending at a discount? If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to our Volunteer Coordinators. Volunteers registering before the early-bird deadline receive a discounted rate of $395 if registered by July 19, $520 between July 20 until Aug. 9, and $645 beginning Aug. 10. Volunteers are required to commit to a minimum of eight hours of volunteer time. To volunteer, contact Kristy Robbins at kristy.robbins@mpac.ca or Jennifer McLean at jennifer.mclean@mpac.ca.

+ Conference Committee seeks roundtable facilitators >

The 2019 Conference Committee invites you to host a roundtable discussion beginning at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 10 in Niagara Falls. Roundtables are intended as informal discussions on pressing current topics important to IAAO members and to provide a venue to both share and learn from peers. If you are interested in leading a one-hour conversation on any of the following proposed topics, please email Leann Ritter at ritter@iaao.org. The topics: affordable/low income housing; Broadband/5G Technology; Energy efficient homes; Highly unique properties; Hotel/motel valuation; Open source software; Politics and the assessor’s office; Rural solutions; Senior housing; Title and deeds; Trends in transportation; Land banking; Staffing issues (too little staff); and Collecting data with drones from the assessor’s perspective.

+ IAAO offices closed July 4-5 >

The IAAO offices will be closed July 4-5 for the Fourth of July holiday and will reopen on Monday, July 8. Online registration for meetings will be available over the holidays.

IAAO Connect Corner

+ Hot Topic: Are finished basements living area? >

Currently IAAO Connect members are discussing whether finished basements are considered part living area. Read more

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AROUND THE INDUSTRY

+ Kansas tax board sides with Walmart over county's assessment >

In a big loss for Johnson County, the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals ruled late last week that the county had overvalued Walmart and Sam’s Club properties by $60 million, charging them millions too much in taxes. This is the latest in an ongoing legal battle between Johnson County and large retail stores to determine the proper way to measure the value of commercial real estate. At stake is tens of millions of tax dollars for schools and services. The case is one of a number filed by Target, Home Depot and other big-box stores in the county to challenge their property tax appraisals, which rose sharply from 2015 to 2016. Read more

+ Zillow updates its Zestimates system >

Zillow just updated its Zestimates of house values. If you follow Zillow's estimate of your house’s value, you might want to check it out now and see if it changed. Zillow made two changes. First, they improved how the Zestimate is calculated and, second, they changed how they report the accuracy/inaccuracy of their Zestimates. Read more

+ Update: the Escanaba, Michigan, 'dark store' trial >

Deliberations are ongoing in the Menard Inc. v. City of Escanaba “dark store” case. In May, a retrial of the case occurred at the Tax Tribunal in Lansing. However, the trial did not finish in the allotted time, so it picked back up during first week of June. Escanaba City Manager Patrick Jordan attended the trial, though he says a ruling has yet to be made in the case. He said the final written arguments from both sides are due in September and that he is hopeful for a ruling to come sometime in October. Read more

+ Nebraska lawmakers resume talks on property tax package >

A Nebraska legislative committee has resumed talks on ways to lower property taxes while preserving state aid for K-12 public schools. Members of the Legislature's Revenue Committee met last week with the goal of crafting a tax package that can win approval early in the 2020 session. Their major property tax bill stalled earlier this year. Read more