Klickitat County Assessor's Office Mass Appraisal Report

Property Rights Appraised:Property Rights Appraised – Fee SimpleFee Simple Title: Fee simple title indicates ownership that is absolute and subject to no limitationother than eminent domain, police power, escheat and taxation. (International Association ofAssessing Officers, Glossary for Property Appraisal and Assessment, (Chicago. IAAO 1997).Scope of Work:Inspection of PropertyThe modeling process relies on the physical inspections performed by the Klickitat County InspectionTeam members and the data contained in the Assessor's Computer Added Mass Appraisal (CAMA)property system database (ProVal). CAMA models have the advantage of explicitly controlling for theeffects of all variables tested in the model – neighborhood, lot size, building size, construction grade,year built, and all other features for which variables were included in the model.All known land sales were investigated and site visits performed to verify the physical characteristicsof the parcel unless precluded from doing so due to lack of access or lack of time that coincided withan extreme weather condition such as snow or flooding in which case aerial photographs and ParcelAnalyst maps were utilized.Sales SourceThe Klickitat County Assessor's office utilizes sales obtained from Real Estate Excise Tax Affidavitsfiled with the Klickitat County Treasurer's Office.Sales ReviewSales are assumed to be arm's length transactions based on initial screening in the sales verificationprocess utilizing standards published by the Washington State Department of Revenue (see appendixfor more information on this process). The mass appraisal must be completed within the timeconstraints set by statute and with the work force and financial resources available. These constraintslimit the amount of sales review that can occur.Sales located in the scheduled physical inspection review area receive at a minimum an externalinspection.Identification of PropertiesAll residential parcels located within the boundaries of Klickitat County were valued. Each parcel isidentified by a 14 digit parcel number. The first two digits represent the Township, the second twodigits represent the Range, the next two digits represent the Section, the next four digits represent thePlat Number, and the next four represent a parcel number for administrative purposes.To help further stratify residential parcels, the County is broken into four inspection areas based onthe approved plan. Each inspection area is divided into neighborhoods, which representgeographical areas that share important locational characteristics. As part of our effort in improve thestatistical quality of our neighborhoods, the number of neighborhoods has decreased from 65neighborhoods to a total of 20 residential neighborhoods, 5 commercial neighborhoods, and 2neighborhoods with wind farm parcels. Inspection Area 1 had 18 neighborhoods and now has