King County Property Tax Soars

The cost of living in King County, Washington has risen dramatically. Businesses are leaving the county because of high taxes and people are losing their jobs. Costs are rising but salaries are not. Those on fixed income such as social security are finding it difficult to survive. People are losing their homes because they cannot afford the high cost of increasing taxes and loss of employment.

Individuals are selling their homes because land values have been assessed as being valued three times the value of last year. A 864 sq ft house built in 1969 (54 years old, 3 bedroom, one bath) that had a value of $24,500 in 1969 now has a house value ($138,000 for 860 sq ft house) and land value ( $228,000 for 5,201 sq ft lot) which equals $366,000 for house and land value in 2023 an increase of +$70,000 from last year.

What's wrong with this picture? A lot of people don't make $70,000 a year, senior citizens may never have made $70,000 a year and yet King County can raise the value of your home $70,000 per year. Senior Citizens living on a fixed income don't get an increase in their take home pay and yet they are expected to pay inflation costs on their homes. A tip for those thinking of buying a home, "Buy a home in an unincorporated area because when the city becomes incorporated, you are also expected to pay an additional city tax that lowers your income."

So how is the property tax law is calculated in Washington state?
They are calculated based on the total of assessed value in a given tax district, and the total budget of a given taxing authority. 

Residential property is assessed each year at its full market value, which is defined as the amount a buyer, willing but not obligated to buy, would pay to a seller willing but not obligated to sell. For residential parcels, fair market value is determined by analyzing recent sales of comparable properties in the same area.

To prevent people losing their homes perhaps the valuation of property tax should not be determined by fair market value but by how much the person owning the home could afford to pay or maybe we should not be taxing our homes at all?

How King County Assess Value

"In valuing residential real estate, we look at both land and improvements (buildings, bulkheads, etc.). We begin by establishing land value, which state law requires us to value as if it is vacant. This value is determined by analyzing sales of comparable bare land. If there have been no recent sales, we use other recognized appraisal methods.

Our next step is to study sales and market trends of improved (developed or built-on) properties in a selected area. This sales analysis is used to determine total market value based on size, year built, quality of construction and other characteristics. From this total value, we subtract the amount determined for the land. The balance is allocated to improvements.

In addition to this Market Approach, residential property can also be valued using the Cost Approach, which sets the value based on what it would cost to reproduce or replace the property, minus its depreciated value.

In addition to statistical analysis to determine value, all properties are physically inspected once in every six year cycle.

Whenever we revalue your property, you will receive an Official Property Value Notice showing your old and new total values with separate values shown for land and improvements."

What can be done?

1. Change the way we do tax valuation.

2. Centralize and lower services costs by using set standards. Building plans could be constant and reusable by different counties. Reuse what is in place instead of creating additional cost plans.

3. Lower costs by using fewer people. We have computers that could value land and homes instead of using additional people to go out and value the land and property. Google maps if you zoom in actually shows the home and property condition... it's online. There are drones that also can get a sky high view of many properties at once. The land toxicity that indicates the Arsenic and lead poisoning in King County could be looked at with GIS mapping technology.  GIS mapping technology can use blood lead screening, tax assessor (property), and U.S. census data to develop and improve preventive interventions, especially primary prevention (before children are poisoned). With GIS, maps can be created that show the location and age of every housing unit in an area. These maps can include information on other risk factors for lead poisoning, including population distributions, housing conditions, and BLLs of resident children during a given period. This information can be used to show the relationship between housing units and risk factors.

3. Government entities should financially support their own infrastructures without taxation to the people. It means thinking a different way.

Where is the government's greatest assets? In the land, where it has always been, of course. There is only so much land to be had, King County is a prime example. There is only so much land and way too many people looking to occupy it.

King County is often called "The Land of the Millionaires" only most people are living just at or just below poverty level.

The federal government owns roughly 640 million acres, about 28% of the 2.27 billion acres of land in the United States. Four major federal land management agencies administer 606.5 million acres of this land. 

What is it that most people need and use? Energy. We need energy to power our homes and our lives. Energy can be created on the land and sold to the utilities. In the southwest there are acres of land that are not improved, where solar power could be creating energy. The southwest is also drying up, the water is at premium. Everyone needs water, probably some infrastructure will have to be in place to get water from where it's now flowing to those in the southwest. If not all those people in the southwest will need to go somewhere, maybe up here to the northwest? 

4. People never really own their homes. If you don't pay your taxes then the government owns your home. People never really own their land. We are essentially leasing our land from the government, because if we don't pay the taxes the government will take your property.

There are other costs of maintaining a home. We recently had a water main leak that cost us $5,400 to replace the water main from the house to the street, and the water company sent us a $13,000 water bill (that they lowered to $965, a one time lowering per 5 years). We were lucky that the water leak was not under the house. Some people never find their water leak. The unexpected $6k water leak expenditure was only one problem. We also have Home Owner Association dues the went from $27 per month two years ago, to $43 per month last year to $45 per month this year. Every time your house and land cost increases makes the cost of your house insurance go up also. The typical house insurance with earthquake insurance is around $1,000 per year. Another large investment is roof replacement, it cost about $13,000 to replace our roof three years ago.

It would be wonderful if people were not taxed on their homes.