BJ Adams Real Estate on Higher Ground
May Brings Daffodils, New Born Lambs and Foals, the Possibility of Hope – and Pitkin and Eagle County Valuations I love May in Aspen . . . though admittedly, I’m one of the few. Most of my colleagues skipped town as soon as the lifts closed to head for desert or beach, but I love watching the winter browns and greys transform, almost magically a little bit every night, to the deepest, most lusciously green grasses and leaves. I can stand at a fence and watch for hours the newly born, wobbly-legged lambs and foals and calves at ranches all over the valley. Or, wait patiently all afternoon for mama fox and her babies climb out of the culvert below our office and frolic in the grass in the sun. Or, pull off Hwy 82 and stare at the osprey nesting at the top of a lone pole in the middle of an otherwise empty Emma field (check out the live-stream video at PitkinCounty. com/953/Osprey-cam. And the profusion of daffodils and tulips, popping up every morning – even meadows of yellow dandelions – all these signs of new life, new hope – bring me such peace, such simple joy. Spring brings all these many delights, but the season also brings a dose of reality, every other odd year, in the form of property valuation notices from the county assessor.
Ho Hum, Hooray! Or Holy Smokes! The Latest Property Valuations At the beginning of May, county assessors mail valuation notices to owners, reflecting the reassessed values of the nearly 20,000 properties in Pitkin County and in the part of the Roaring Fork midvalley which is located in Eagle County. New valuations reflect the appraised value of property as of June 30, 2018, based on comparable neighborhood sales for the two-year period prior to that (all the way back to June 2016).
The market has been the strongest – and values have risen accordingly – in central Aspen and Red Mountain. With the exception of White Horse Springs where activity was strong two years ago, as one moves in concentric circles away from the core of Aspen, values have remained stable or even gone down. Snowmass is all over the place, again depending upon where the most activity occurred (or didn’t). If, as a Roaring Fork Valley property owner, you have questions about your valuation when it arrives, we’re happy to review it with you. Our library of data is extensive and, of course, we know the area and recent sales activity extremely well. E-mail your valuation notice to me at bj.adams@compass.com before you call, and I’ll go over it with you.
Photo by Karen Goluba
Your reaction when you open your valuation, depending upon where you live in the valley, could vary from relief to alarm. The marketplace is notoriously neighborhood-specific, and while the overall value of property in the Roaring Fork Valley has gone up, some areas have seen values rise much more than others, while a few areas have even gone down a little.
Of the past 84 winters, March 2019 was the second snowiest on record. Source: City of Aspen
Helpful to Keep in Mind When You Review Your Valuation
1
Property owners have until June 1 to protest their valuations, and it’s worth doing so if you can demonstrate that, had your property been for sale on June 30, 2016, you wouldn’t have been able to secure that price for it. You must be able to provide the assessor’s office with comparable sales from the two-year period prior to June 30, 2016, to validate your point. The later the sale date, the more weight it carries. The assessor’s office cautions people to shy away from using foreclosure, short sale, or REO (bank real estate-owned) sales as comps, particularly if there are other valid arms-length sales available.
2
Each $100,000 reduction in actual value you are able to successfully claim may save you about $230 to $700 in property
3
taxes on residential properties depending upon the district in which you reside, the higher end of that range being Base Village, unincorporated Pitkin County, and Basalt. Consider whether your efforts to protest will be worth the end result, particularly if you hire an appraiser, attorney or tax consultant. The impact on vacant land or commercial property, however, is considerably more, about $1300 to $2800 per $100,000 in value.
I f comparable sales which closed after June 30, 2016, would otherwise prove your property is not as valuable as the assessor’s office currently believes it is, know that those sales will be reflected in your 2019 re-appraisal.
How are Property Taxes Determined in Colorado? For tax purposes, counties use the appraised – or actual – value of one’s property in order to determine an assessed value, the latter figure being the one upon which property taxes are based. In Colorado, assessed values of residential properties are only 7.20% of their actual values (commercial properties and vacant land are assessed at 29%). It is the assessed value, multiplied by the total mill levy in your community, which will determine the property taxes you pay in 2019 and 2020.
EXAMPLE
$1,000,000 x 7.2% = $72,000 x .032473* = $2338
actual value
PROP TAX/IMPROVED
assessed value
mill levy
property tax
$1,000,000 x 29% = $290,000 x .032473* = $9417
actual value
PROP TAX/VACANT LAND
assessed value
mill levy
property tax
* The current (2016) mill levy in core Aspen is 32.473; in Snowmass Village, 49.344; in Base Village, 98.844; in the part of Basalt which is in Pitkin County, it’s 91.138; Basalt in Eagle County, 89.480; El Jebel, 75.408
This month marks the 25th year I’ve been in the real estate business, and I have some new and exciting things to share. Milestone anniversaries are often a time to reexamine one’s life and priorities. For many years, a sizeable amount of my time and attention has been devoted to supporting a company and a lot of other people. While this has been rewarding, it’s time for a new chapter to be written in my story – one where I will have considerably more energy to dedicate to my clientele, the part of the business I’ve always loved the most. I have decided to join Compass Real Estate to continue building their presence in the valley. I will remain in our yellow farmhouse in Snowmass, where we’ve been for the last 2½ decades, with a small, exceptionally talented team of assistants. With the full-time support staff and time-saving technology Compass offers, I’ll be afforded the time, not to running a company, but to concentrating on my clients and on listing, marketing and selling real estate. This is what I’ve always done best, and I am so looking forward to directing my considerable energy to redefining Real Estate on Higher Ground and to how my real estate practice is expressed out into the world.
BJ Adams | Compass PO Box 6699 Snowmass Village, CO 81615
What’s Inside Spring Brings New Possibilities Should You Protest the Assessor’s New Valuation of Your Property? 25 Years in Business and Next Chapters
BJ Adams
Yellow Farmhouse Next to Alpine Bank 970.923.2111 | AspenSnowmassProperties.com
Sold & Pending 2019 YTD at 3.31.19 (compared to 2018 YTD at 3.31.18)
58% Aspen
75%
Snowmass Village
14%
Basalt
“ The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.” - Edwin Way Teale, American naturalist, photographer and writer (1899-1980)
©2019 BJ Adams | Compass