PORT TOWNSEND – Many of the owners of the 10,125 properties in the Chimacum School District will look upon their property reassessment statements, which will be mailed Aug. 1, with surprise, and possibly horror.
Since the last assessment of these property values four years ago, many have doubled, tripled, and in some cases increased 10-fold, said Jefferson County Assessor Jack Westerman III.
“This four-year cycle is going to see some remarkable changes in value,” Westerman said.
All property in Jefferson County, and the state, is assessed at 100 percent fair market value, according to state law.
Jefferson County is on a four-year revaluation cycle.
The Chimacum School District that was reassessed this year includes Chimacum, Port Hadlock, Irondale, Port Ludlow, Paradise Bay, Shine, Marrowstone Island and Beaver Valley.
In an interview Tuesday about this year’s revaluations, Westerman peppered his speech with such words as “drastic,” “breathtaking” and “astronomical.”
The biggest increases, he said, were in land values rather than for existing structures.
“Lots in Port Ludlow selling for $80,000 four years ago are selling for $800,000 today,” Westerman said.
Another example of increased land value is a home on 18 acres on Marrowstone Island that assessed in 2003 at $923,250 and is now valued at $2,967,540.
It sold in November 2006 for $3 million.
The home accounts for only $307,540 of that total value. The rest is the land.
One change this year that Westerman has never seen before is the climbing value of condominiums.
In the past, their value had remained constant in value, but this year it has spiked along with everything else.
The owners of a condo in the heart of Port Ludlow assessed in 2003 at $188,715 will receive an assessment statement in August saying that value has jumped to $361,300.
“We’ve never seen doubling of condominiums over a four-year period,” Westerman said.
