Seattle Bubble

Declining property values are beginning to sink in at tax assessors’ offices around the sound.
From the Everett Herald: Slump hits tax value of your home
“I don’t think I can remember a year where we’ve decreased residential values countywide since I started working here in 1987,” county assessor Cindy Portmann said. Her chief residential appraiser, Steve [...]

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The mythical “fixed payments” for home buyers takes another hit in 2008, as property taxes increase an average of 6.5% across the county.
The average King County homeowner will pay about 6.5 percent more in property taxes in 2008, mostly because of voter-approved increases and creation of new taxing districts, Assessor Scott Noble reported Thursday.
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Countywide, voter-approved [...]

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Haven’t seen this one mentioned on the other local real estate blogs, but it’s definitely of interest to anyone out there that already owns a home (or a home loan, as the case may be). Depending on who you believe, a new bill floating around down in Olympia may either help home owners reduce [...]

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Hmm, this seems like it could be a timely lucky break for state and local governments that have failed to responsibly save any of their recently booming property-tax revenue:
The State Supreme Court today found Initiative 747, the tax-limiting measure passed by voters in 2001, unconstitutional.
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The measure, passed by voters in 2001, limited increases in state [...]

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