Maricopa County Assessor Paul Petersen, Assessor Representative (602) 372-0570 petersenp@mail.maricopa.

gov

The questions for the County Assessor have been answered as of 10-10-11 and appear below.
1. Do Assessor's staff come out to a house to determine its assessed value? Answer: When a property is originally developed or when a major modification is made such as additional living space is added, a representative from the Assessors Office inspects the property and collects data on the property such as the square footage of the improvements, the construction material for the exterior walls and roof etc. This property specific data is used to determine the assessed value for each property. For single family homes the office examines sales of properties in the subjects neighborhood and makes adjustments for each property based on difference between the sale property and the subject property. For example adjustments may be made for improvement size, age, construction material etc. 2. Closed sales values (for Festival) have not moved up. In the last 18 months only three of 78 homes have gone up in sales value. Answer: I am sorry but I am not sure what moved up means. However, The Assessors Office reviews all of the sales in the subject neighborhood as well as surrounding areas. The details of these sales are used to estimate the assessed value for each home is neighborhood. Some homes in your neighborhood saw their assessed value increase and some saw decreases. These changes reflect the sales data used in the analysis. Overall the medium change for the neighborhood was a reduction of 0.52%. This is a much smaller change than was seen throughout Maricopa County and is a reflection that your community has been more stable than the average community in the County. Additionally, it appears from our records that 10 of the homes which saw an increase were due to new improvements being made to the properties and 74 of the homes which saw an increase were due to our office correcting a square footage issue on one particular model (the original size of the model was slightly smaller than it should have been in our records). This certainly does not account for all of the increases, based on my estimate there were a little over 50 properties which increased because of market data changes. 3. Do the property values include all home sales, including foreclosures, short sales, new homes, and general sale of homes? Answer: Yes, the sales utilized in the Assessors Office analysis include foreclosures, short sales, new homes and general sales of homes. However, we review the sales data and exclude non arms length transactions such as a sale from one family member to another. We also recognize that some foreclosures and short sales are of homes where the condition of the home is below what is typical and if we can identify such properties they are also excluded from the analysis.

4. Re: "Increased property value" (for Festival Ranch). Please explain this in light of decreased market value, i.e. sales price. Did we simply pay too much for our homes? Answer: I am sorry but I cannot address such a question. Each sale is unique and hopefully reflected the market value at the time of the sale. Over the last few years home values in general have fallen, but the rate of decline has not been the same everywhere. Some areas have seen dramatic decreases and some only slight decreases. However, it is important to remember that the assessed value is intended to be slightly below what you can sell your home for. 5. When we purchased our home the list price was $297,000. It is currently $227,000. Explain. Residents cannot sell their homes without taking huge losses. Answer: Unfortunately, this is true of most of the homes in Maricopa County and is a reflection of how the market has changed over the last few years. 6. Why is our appraised value going up by $15,000 for the 2012 year? Answer: I am sorry but without knowing your property address or parcel number I cannot answer this question. As stated earlier some homes in your community went up in value and some went down. These changes are a reflection of the specific property characteristics of each home in relationship to the most current market sales transactions. Additionally, it appears from our records that 10 of the homes which saw an increase were due to new improvements being made to the properties and 74 of the homes which saw an increase were due to our office correcting a square footage issue on one particular model (the original size of the model was slightly smaller than it should have been in our records). This certainly does not account for all of the increases, based on my estimate there were a little over 50 properties which increased because of market data changes. If you have a question about the size of your home you can look it up on the web at http://mcassessor.maricopa.gov/assessor// or you can call 602-506-3406.