Ouray Real Estate Values

Written by: Beverly Corbell - Ouray County Watch

Posted by: Erin Eddy

County assessor offices make valuations of property every two years, Griffith said, and many property owners expected to see their property values going lower than they were in 2007.

But that’s not the reality, she said.

“The perception of property owners, especially those who have had their property on the market for a length of time, is that values are dropping,” Griffith said in a news release. “However, in general, that is not the case. The assessors’ values are not based on the number of sales but on the prices of the properties that have sold.”

Actual values of properties are determined “after careful analysis” of sales prior to June 30, 2008, and the value becomes the basis for property taxes, Griffith said.

“To derive the property tax, the actual value of the property is multiplied by the assessment rate,” she said. “This result is then multiplied by the total mil levy specific to each property.”

The data that revealed the Western Slope is “bucking the trend” nationally was the result of several weeks of collaboration to identify trends in valuations for the region, with a lot of help from Montrose County Assessor Brad Hughes and Ouray County Assessor Susie Mayfield, Griffith said. Also helping compile data were the county assessors from the counties of Moffatt, Routt, Rio Blanco, Garfield, Eagle, Mesa, Pitkin, Delta, Gunnison, San Miguel, San Juan, Montezuma, and La Plata.

The collaboration was a first for the 16 counties, Griffith said.

“We actually started working on the project in January, and this is the first time we all came together with a press release, but we all wanted to get this information out,” she said.

Just what the future holds as far as valuations are concerned is anybody’s guess, Mayfield said.

The next valuation period, in 2011, will depend on sales from January of this year through June of 2010, she said.

“It’s hard to say what 2011 will bring,” she said. “We haven’t gotten to the normal real estate market time – summertime – and it’s hard to say what the economy will do and what people will be able to pay for a home or land.”