Published in the August 18, 2016 edition
It’s that time of year again. New property valuations will be in place for the upcoming fiscal year 2017 actual tax bills due to be mailed in late December.
This week, we will release the proposed fiscal year 2017 valuations. These are the new values that the assessors recommended to the State DOR for final approval. As part of the approval process, the assessors are making these proposed valuations available for public review on the town’s website, wakefield.ma.us/departments/assessing as well as at the Beebe Library, the Senior Center and at the Assessor’s Office in Town Hall during normal business hours. Department staff will be available to address any concerns folks may have about their own assessment. We expect this review period to conclude by Aug. 31 at which time we will move forward with both our final valuation certification efforts and tax rate approval.
Fiscal year 2017 is a triennial certification year for all valuations for the Town. Basically, every three years, the representatives from the state’s Department of Revenue set up shop in the Assessor’s office and review all valuations, all sales, all valuation schedules and tables, all adjustments and, the most important component to any revaluation, the detailed statistical analysis which must conform to the prevailing state guidelines.
“I’ve been in this profession for many, many years and the level of support and cooperation from Department of Revenue staff is the highest it’s ever been,” said Sebastian Tine, current chairman of the Wakefield Board of Assessors.
Added new board member Walter Schofield, “being new to the position, I have met with Victor (Director of Assessments Victor Santaniello) regularly and have been impressed with how seamless this process has been.”
Assessors are required to compare the actual sales price of homes in their individual community during a given year to the assessed valuations of those sold homes. Additionally, we are required to interpret that market data and apply the results to the assessed values of other properties in the town. Sales during calendar year 2015 were used to produce assessments for fiscal year 2017, with minor exceptions for multifamily homes and commercial properties, where two years of sales were utilized. Moreover, the proposed valuations that will be available shortly conform to the state DOR’s assessment guidelines.
Our review of almost 350 arms-length sales during calendar year 2015 resulted in adjustments to residential properties. The average adjustment to single family homes was 6.8 percent. So, some individual properties may have been adjusted by slightly more than that and others lower. Adjustments to valuations are required yearly to meet the prevailing DOR guidelines. “With sale prices rising steadily over the past several years, yearly adjustments to values help to mitigate huge changes to values in revaluation years,” said board member Jane D’Addario.
According to data obtained from MLS Property Information Network, Inc., there were 236 single family home sales in calendar year 2014 with an average sale price of $469,934. In 2015 there were 218 single family home sales with an average sale price of $492,971 which represents a 4.9 percent increase in sale price from year to year. The average single family assessed value for FY 2016 was $440,400 and for FY 2017 it will be $471,800.
The average commercial property valuation for FY 2016 was $1,176,700. Assessments in that class increased approximately 5.5 percent with the average commercial value coming in at $1,241,500 for FY 2017. Most of this increase is attributable to tenant improvements and lower vacancy rates in our commercial office segment.
