Jeff Blubaugh: New Sedgwick County tax valuations don’t reflect the market

The Sedgwick County tax valuations which recently came out are not a realistic assessment of the value of property in our community. As a real estate agent and now as a public official, I have been fighting the appraisal system well before I ran for Wichita City Council. The fact is, the methodology used is not realistic data.

During the recession, I argued against my property taxes because they were pulling all of the REO, or bank-owned and foreclosed homes, out of their analysis. The Sedgwick County Appraiser’s Office said the REO and bank foreclosures were not reflective of the total market, even though in some neighborhoods they made up close to half of all the listings on the market.

Right now in Sedgwick County we have a seller’s market — we have more buyers looking for property than sellers looking to sell. If everyone in Sedgwick County put their home on the market right now it would flood the market, making the sales price unreflective of the current valuations. The root cause of this is that there are a small number of homes on the market for sale right now. As I write this, there are just over 1,000 homes on the market. When I started in real estate over 17 years ago, there were just under 5,000 listings in the Sedgwick County Multiple Listing System.

The conditions today exist for several different reasons:

▪ One: Because the price of new homes has increased at a much stronger pace than incomes.

▪ Two: We are seeing many older, larger homes not increasing as much as newer, smaller homes. This is because even though the homes are larger, they do not sell as high if they are not updated to new color schemes and higher-end interior finishes like new homes.

I encourage taxpayers to exercise your rights and protest your current property taxes if you are unhappy with your assessed value. You can find information on how to protest on your property valuation form. If you decide to protest, be prepared to discuss characteristics and conditions of your property vs. your neighborhood value.

The folks I see get hit the hardest are in lower income neighborhoods and folks on fixed incomes. They might only see a 3% to 5% increase; however, deferred maintenance items for these houses far exceed this appreciation rate. These are the individuals that need to protest their property value the most.

The system is driven by the State of Kansas; however, it’s time we search to find a more equitable, realistic valuation system for all.

This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 5:04 AM.