Property Assessment

Important Property Tax Information - Portland Oregon Metro Area

 

 

Greater Portland Property Assessment Update - November 2015

Property Assessment Update is an occasional service to corporate asset managers, accountants and finance officers, independent certified public accountants, property managers and tax agents, and membership organizations.

• November 2 Clackamas County, Oregon, Appraisal plan due to Oregon Department of Revenue (ODOR)
• November 16 Clackamas County, Oregon, first trimester tax payment due for 2015-2016 year
• November 16 Columbia County, Oregon, first payment due for 2015-2016 year
• November 16 Washington County, Oregon, first tax payment due for 2015-2016 year
• November 17 Multnomah County, Oregon, first payment due for 2015-2016 year
• Property Tax Appeals in Oregon: A property owner can appeal the valuation of the property to the local Board of Property Tax Appeals. Petitions to the board must be filed between late October, when the tax statements are mailed, and December 31

No property assessment news to report for Clark County, Washington, and Skamania County, Washington, for this month.

For additional information for those who own or manage properties in the Portland Metropolitan Area, each of the seven counties that make up this area are listed below for your convenience. (As defined by the U. S. Office of Management and Budget as the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Also known as the Portland Metropolitan Area or Greater Portland.)

Greater Portland Metropolitan Area Property Tax Assessment Offices

Clackamas County, Oregon, Assessment & Taxation

Department website: http://www.clackamas.us/at/

Clark County, Washington, Department of Assessment

Department website: http://www.clark.wa.gov/assessor/index.html

Columbia County, Oregon, Assessment & Taxation

Department website: http://www.co.columbia.or.us/departments/assessors-office/assessors-home

Multnomah County, Oregon, Division of Assessment, Recording & Taxation (DART)

Department website: http://web.multco.us/assessment-taxation

Skamania County, Washington, County Assessor’s Office

Department website: http://www.skamaniacounty.org/assessor/

Washington County, Oregon, Assessment & Taxation

Department website: http://www.co.washington.or.us/AssessmentTaxation/index.cfm

Yamhill County, Oregon, Assessment & Taxation

Department website: http://www.co.yamhill.or.us/assessor

Data Sources for the Valuation of Commercial Real Estate

 

We recently completed a compilation of 22 tips and 37 websites that are of interest to commercial real estate investors. Although it was originally written to assist appraisers and property tax assessors, property owners, investors, and asset managers will benefit because:

• It gives them a peek behind the curtain to reveal how appraisers and local assessors approach the valuation of there investment properties; and
• It provides an opportunity to employ some of the mass-appraisal techniques used by assessors to quickly value a large portfolio of properties or identify investment opportunities.

Entitled “Data Sources for the Valuation of Commercial and Industrial Properties” the fact sheet is an effective way to outline your data sources for monitoring real estate investment opportunities and trends, and can be used as a means of contacting these sources of information. The full-text fact sheet is free when you opt-in to receive our Commercial Real Estate newsletter, a monthly e-mail to subscribers that notifies commercial property owners and investors of items of interest related to real estate valuation, tax compliance, and tax management. A two page sample of the fact sheet can be viewed by clicking here.

Or click here to sign up now and receive the free fact sheet within the next 24 hours. Of course you can unsubscribe at any time and the fact sheet is yours to keep.

If you like the information provided in the fact sheet let your friends and colleagues know about it.

 

Newly Discovered Source for Commercial Real Estate Market Data

Want to know the inventory of federal government buildings in your commercial real estate market?  Just how many buildings within your market are federally owned or leased and how many square feet of space do they occupy?  This information and more can be gleaned from the General Services Administration (GSA) Inventory of Owned and Leased Properties http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/100783.

Such information can be very useful to real estate analysts and valuation experts because the presence of federally owned and leased properties can indicate the health of a market area.  GSA lease information can reflect competition in the market for similar commercial property types and other market trends.  The GSA maintains this inventory for over 8,100 leased and government owned buildings.

The website shows data by eleven GSA Regions (e.g., Great Lakes, Heartland, Rocky Mountains, and Mid-Atlantic) that are further broken down by states and districts within each state.  For example the Northwest/Arctic Region (also known as GSA Region 10) includes Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.  Oregon is then divided into five districts that correspond to congressional districts.  District 1 of Region 10 includes the GSA inventory of owned and leased properties in Astoria, Beaverton, and Portland, Oregon.

I came by this website while on an Internet search for information about the United States Agency for International Development.  As I’m sure you have found many of my best discoveries take place when I’m looking for something else.  That’s just the way Internet research works.  So always be ready to bookmark found websites in a logical folder where you can find them again.

Many of you may already know and use this website.  If you have our readers would like to hear the good, bad and ugly of your experiences.  We’d also like to here of any websites that you recommend and have found to be particularly useful in your profession.

If you need access to reliable real estate information you can sign up for our e-Alerts.  When you sign up you have instant access to several of our free special reports including: “Selected Internet Resources: Real Estate Research Centers” and “Over 100 Internet Websites for Appraisers and Valuation Specialists.”

Hoping for a Tax Assessment Reduction in 2011?

City Assessor Advises Commercial and Industrial Property Owners to Take Action

If you only have time to do one thing in the next week, file an income and expense statement with your local real estate assessing office informing them of the current ability for you to lease your commercial or industrial property in today's market.  Even if you own and occupy your property you should be current with asking rents, rental concessions, vacancy rates, tenant fit-up expenses and operating expenses for similar properties.  Call your local assessor and find out how you can provide his or her office with income and expense information about the type of property that you own.

Assessors can and often do reflect current real estate market conditions using what valuation experts call the "income approach to value."  But in order to consider this approach your local assessor needs to know how your property and competing properties are fairing in today's market.  So this is not only a plea for you to provide such information to the local assessor, but other commercial and industrial property owners as well.  It stands to reason that an assessor will be swayed by strong evidence that indicates prevailing market conditions more than just a few instances of the lowering of rents and high vacancies.

In some states, like Virginia, if the local assessor asks for income and expense information and you did not comply with the request neither the assessor, the income approach to value can not be considered in the assessment review and appeal process by the assessor, Board of Equalization, or circuit court.  As such you are left only with construction costs and comparable sales approaches to value.  Don't eliminate this valuable approach!

Most assessors have downloadable income and expense statements available on their websites.  Unfortunately there is very little standardization in the real estate assessment field at this time.  So don't use a statement from another assessor’s website.

If you would like more advice, tips, and suggestions about real estate assessments subscribe to our Property Assessment e-Alerts or check back at this Property Assessment blog often.  You'll understand how assessors do their jobs and how to take constructive action when they don't.

Recommended Website: Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency

Tax Exemptions or Incentives in Your State

An occasional series that recommends useful websites to our readers as discovered by Property Assessment authors or suggested by readers.

Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency
http://www.dsireusa.org/

The end of the tax year conjures up notions of tax exemptions, deductions, and incentives.  Hopefully you knew many of these when the tax year started or you discovered them before you made purchase decisions.  However, state legislatures are actively adopting legislation that could affect the amount of taxes you pay each year.

The Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE) gives you the ability to check for state and federal renewable energy and energy efficiency incentives in your area.  The site describes each type of incentive for your individual state and lists the applicable sectors (commercial, industrial, residential, etc.).  For example, did you know that certain solar energy equipment or recycling equipment can qualify for exemption or partial exemption from local property taxes?

According to their website, DSIRE is a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility and federal incentives and policies that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency.  Established in 1995 and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, DSIRE is an ongoing project of the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council.

Find out the tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency in your state.  Your property, or improvements that you are considering, could qualify for tax exemption, deduction, or other available incentives.