McCall Idaho Headline News

The value of property in Valley County increased by 50 percent to $6 billion this year, Valley County Assessor Karen Campbell said.

The 2006 valuation of private property in the county was just under $4 billion.

Since the real estate boom in the county began in 2004, the county has increased in value by more than 300 percent, from $1.8 billion in 2004 to $6 billion this year.

This year's assessment includes $372 million in new construction, which was $6 million less than last year's new construction assessment, Campbell said.

This year, the assessor's office reappraised properties on the north side of McCall and around Payette Lake.

The value of properties on the lakefront increased from $13,440 per foot frontage to $23,000 per foot on average, Campbell said.

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Some properties were higher than $23,000 per foot based on the particulars of the property, she said.

Excluding lakefront properties in McCall, assessments for bare land went up about 135 percent in McCall.

Bare land assessments in the Donnelly area west to the Royal Scot subdivision were up about 80 percent, Campbell said.

Bare land in other parts of the county rose considerably, including 65 percent at Smiths Ferry, 55 percent at Cascade, 70 percent on the west side of Lake Cascade to Tamarack and 50 percent between Donnelly and McCall."

"Generally speaking, most improvements, meaning homes, went down from last year," Campbell said. "Commercial values were not changed, except for corrections that were made."

Higher taxes not a certainty
The increased valuations do not necessarily mean that property taxes will increase. The tax levy for taxing districts in the county will be set by the Valley County Board of Commissioners this fall, after the taxing districts submit their proposed budgets.

Taxing districts cannot increase their budgets by more than 3 percent, Campbell said.

'Any class of property can see an increase in their tax dollars as a result of an increase in assessment," Campbell said. "However, it will not be near the same proportion as the percent of increase in the assessment."

The assessor's office based its assessment on 415 sales of bare land and real property in the county during 2006, and not on all sales within the county. Idaho property owners are not required by law to supply the county with sales information.

The office does remove "outliers" in its assessment process. An outlier is a property that sells for a much higher or lower amount than other properties.

"The more information we have the more accurate our numbers are going to be," Campbell said.
Last year, 601 appeals were made to the preliminary assessments, which Campbell said was likely a record number. Appeals for this year's assessments have to be submitted to the Valley County Assessor's Office by Monday at 5 p.m. Forms for the appeal can be obtained from the county, and appeals must be in the possession of the assessor by Monday. An appeal with a Monday postmark that is received after Monday will not be accepted.

She warned that the telephones in her office have been "hectic" since the assessment notices went out to land owners. She suggested people send an e-mail to kcampbell@ co.valleyid.us.