In Part 1: Filing the Appeal, I discussed the background of the appeal process and paperwork up to the point of receiving my first correspondence from the King County Board of Equalization (about three months after filling my appeal). The correspondence was a mailed letter with my “notice of hearing” that was scheduled for another two months later. This is where I pick the story/process back up for Part 2. Approximately one month before my scheduled hearing, I received an ema

In July of 2015, I received my “Official Property Value Notice” in the form of a postcard mailed from the King County Assessor’s office; this postcard contained my 2015 assessed value for taxes due in 2016. As someone who eats, breathes, and sleep real estate, I keep an ongoing assets and liabilities spreadsheet that I update monthly with the estimated value of my home. I monitor the comps on a routine basis. So, I was rather astonished when my assessed value came in 27% high

The Greater Seattle real estate market picked up in 2016 right where it left off, and the consensus amongst analysts is another year of price gains in Seattle. The simple explanation continues to be a lack of inventory and strong demand keeping an upward pressure on prices, and the data suggests that relationship will continue to push home values higher in 2016. The picture I chose for this blog post tells the story pretty plainly. It’s a picture I took of a stack of business