Assessing Info -- April 4, 2024

Without incentive to pay, NYC’s delinquent property taxes soar
   More New Yorkers have stopped paying their property taxes — a troubling trend since the onset of the pandemic that city officials attribute to the end of a tax-lien sales program that punishes delinquency.
   Overdue property taxes are forecast to reach its highest level ever, jumping by over 30% to more than $880 million at the end of the fiscal year in June from three years ago. That means New York could be bringing in less tax revenue, since close to half of it comes from property taxes.
   Since a tax-lien sale program on unpaid property taxes expired in 2022 and wasn’t reauthorized by City Council, officials say delinquent owners have no incentive to pay their debts. Read more

As need for affordable housing soars, micro-apartments are back
Boarding houses that rented single rooms to low-income, blue-collar, or temporary workers were prevalent across the U.S. in the early 1900s.

Known as single room occupancy units, or SROs, they started to disappear in the postwar years amid urban renewal efforts and a focus on suburban single-family housing.

Now the concept is reappearing — with the trendy name of “micro-apartment” and aimed at a much broader array of residents — as cities buffeted by surging homelessness struggle to make housing more affordable. Read more

Housing markets in four states see huge surge
in interest
   Areas of the West boast what realtor.com called some of the hottest housing markets in the country as work is returning to the pre-COVID era.
   It looks at popularity based on how many views the areas attract on its website and the number of days listings stay active.
   The Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise area in Nevada jumped 141 spots on the list of hottest markets, followed by Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale in Arizona, which went up 76 positions. St. Louis, Missouri, climbed 75 spots, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California, went up 60 spots, and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim saw a 59-place increase. Read more

IAAO NEWS

Get up to date during April 5 online Town Hall
   IAAO will host an online Town Hall at 10 a.m. Central on Friday, April 5, to update members on recent association activities and plans for 2024 and beyond.
Members can register to attend here.
   IAAO President Rebecca Malmquist, CAE, and Executive Director Amy Rasmussen, RES, AAS, FIAAO, will deliver updates on committee and task force activities, review strategic planning efforts, and go over the status of IAAO meetings, membership, and education.
   Register today for the online Town Hall, set for Friday, April 5. Questions for the Town Hall may be submitted in advance to townhall@iaao.org.

Next WIN’ing Conversations on ‘Working Better Together,’ set for April 16
   People are your organization’s most valuable asset. The Women's Initiative Network’s WIN’ing Conversations call, moved to April 16 at noon Central, is on “Working Better Together: Exploring Communication, Roles, and Responsibilities.”
   As staffs and the community become increasingly diverse, success depends on the ability to understand and leverage the dynamics of difference.
   This session places culture within the context of an interwoven network of relationships and offers ways to improve our ability to comprehend and communicate with colleagues from varying backgrounds and experiences.

The goal is to develop and enhance the tools to ensure that everyone in the workplace is heard, valued, and respected.
The call will feature Barbara Cheives, president and CEO of Converge & Associates Consulting Inc. More information and a registration link are here.

Registration now open for online mass appraisal symposium
The International Property Tax Institute and IAAO will present a joint Mass Appraisal Valuation Symposium June 26-27, and registration is open. The theme of the virtual MAVS is “Challenges and Opportunities.”
Speakers from around the world will present on mass appraisal, emerging developments in valuation, technology and innovation, the use of data, property tax administration, leadership and ethics, and reviews and appeals. Full details on the programs are available online.

Registration fees for IAAO/IPTI members are USD $219/CAD $284. For nonmembers, the fee is USD $295/CAD $385. Register online.

IAAO seeks member input on website redesign, layout, organization
IAAO is working on updating the IAAO website and would like members’ help in understanding where pages on the website should be.

Working with a design firm, IAAO has a “Card Sort Study,” where participants can look at a list of pages and then group them into sections that make sense. IAAO would like to understand how members would group topics and what those groups would be named. The activity is online and shouldn’t take longer than 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

Any member can participate in the exercise.

Interested in earning an IAAO designation?

Attend the April 18 Zoom chat
If you are interested in earning an IAAO designation, Professional Development Committee members are offering Zoom chats every other month to answer questions and share experiences about earning designations.
The next chat is set for Thursday, April 18, and will be a discussion on earning a CAE or RES designation. Current designees will be available to answer your questions. There is no charge, and you can register here.

Future chats will focus on the MAS and AAS designations (Aug. 15), the CMS and PPS designations (Dec. 12), and designations in general (June 13 and Oct. 24).

Full chat dates and links to register are on the designation discourse page.

Board of Director’s election information available; the filing deadline is July 1
Members interested in running for the IAAO Board of Directors can find information on submitting candidate materials by the July 1 deadline on the website.

   Check out the elections page on the IAAO website for more information and the forms that will be needed to submit.
   Regular members in good standing will be able to vote electronically from Nov. 1-15 for the board member and officer positions, and associate members will vote on the associate board member. Read more

Multifamily housing focus of May Webinar
   With the multifamily housing market booming, increasing rents have had a significant impact on affordability.

This will be the focus of the May IAAO webinar on “Multifamily Repurposing: Trend Or Craze and How It Makes Sense.”

The situation has put pressure on developers to find a creative way to supply affordable multifamily housing despite rising land and construction costs.

The webinar, set for noon Central on Wednesday, May 1, will be presented by Kelby Collier, AAS, and is eligible for 1.5 CEU hours. The cost is $55 for IAAO members and $77 for nonmembers. Register online.

Membership Madness winner announced Monday
The IAAO Membership Madness contest winner will be decided by a coin flip on Facebook Live and YouTube at 10 a.m. Central on Monday, April 8.

The winner gets one free IAAO Self-Study Course and a bundle of IAAO swag.

IAAO Membership Madness bracket entries were reserved for the first 32 IAAO members who referred a new member, as well as the new member they referred, between March 1 and March 31.

MEMBER CONNECT CORNER

Hot topic: optimal hearing room size

IAAO Connect members are discussing the best size and layout of office spaces for assessment hearings, presentations, etc. Read more

AROUND THE INDUSTRY

The ‘Echo Housing Boom’ is here
Wyoming has seen the largest jump in median property taxes paid since the pre-pandemic period.

According to CoreLogic data, between 2019 and 2023, the median annual property taxes paid for single-family homes increased by 41% for Wyoming homeowners. During the same period, Wyoming home prices, as tracked by Zillow, rose by 32.5%.

But here’s the thing: Wyoming is an outlier. Read more

Washington state’s property tax cap

is a county-budget killer
   For two decades, Franklin County — an agricultural community of about 100,000 in south-central Washington — has been the fastest-growing county in the state.
   But lately, county leaders have been scrambling to pay their bills. They spent $700,000 in limited federal COVID relief dollars last year simply to try to keep the local judicial system afloat. They’d pulled money from dwindled reserves, raided the road levy fund and put off construction, all to make the budget balance one more year.
   And this year? They’ll need to cut another 15% from the general fund. Read more

Detroit is looking to clamp down on property tax fraud. Is the cure worse than the disease?
Brian McGuire doesn’t really pay much attention to his mail. A lot of it is junk, and he gets most of his bills online.

Then last fall, he missed a letter from the city of Detroit. Now he owes thousands of dollars. The same mistake could be affecting homeowners across the city.
These residents are being swept up in a new effort the city says is necessary to stop tax fraud. It carries expensive consequences, even for honest homeowners.

The effort also seems unlikely to catch many property speculators committing fraud out in the open. Read more

Property taxes put Montana governor

at odds with local government leaders
The supplemental property tax bills heading to property owners around the state this spring, made necessary by a November Supreme Court decision, represent a monumental headache for both local tax officials and homeowners.

They also illustrate how the tax issue has driven a wedge between Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican seeking re-election this year, and local government leaders across Montana’s political spectrum. Read more