State of Washington Property Tax Assessments

[John Chapman]

I'm interested in how other counties in Washington are assessing properties.  We have a new assessor in Whitman county and they are now assessing properties that have sold recently at 95% of the sale price.  Previously, they increased properties that recently sold more gradually.  One issue I discovered though, is that they are not consistent.  I checked on the assessed value of a number of properties that have sold recently and only about one-third to twenty-five percent were increased to 95% of the sale price.  The others were adjusted 2.5%.  I asked the appraiser at the county about this and he said they didn't have enough staff to do all the properties, so they did what they could.  BTW, the increase to 95% of sale price is only for multi-family properties.  No single-family properties were increased to 95% of sale price.  He said next year they would look at single family properties.  The assessment on an apartment building I have increased 21%.  I'm wondering what others would do in my situation and if other Washington property owners are having issues with assessments.