Pacific County Courthouse

     “Will wonders never cease!”  That was my first thought the other day when we received an announcement in the mail that the assessed valuation on our house has actually gone down!  Not that we haven’t been watching this past year as the homes in and around Oysterville have sold for far less than their assessments.  Twenty percent less in one case.
     We’ve been wondering if those sales might have a positive effect for us.  As we understand it, the value of our house is supposed to be based on fair market value, as determined by the sales of comparable properties.  But this is Pacific County, after all, and things don’t always follow a logical pattern.
     So, even as we wondered, we hadn’t held out much hope for an actual downward assessment.  And here came the notice that our house is valued at eight percent less than previously!  I call that a miracle of the first order and want to give credit where credit is due (so to speak).
     Of course, there is a bit of a gap between twenty percent and eight percent.  But I don’t mean to quibble.  In fact, if I remember correctly from a meeting we attended not long ago, it takes several years for the sales of comparable houses to get figured into the mix.  So, maybe there will be an additional assessment reduction in the future.  We can but hope.
     In an effort to learn more about this recent largesse, I ran across a website that told me something else entirely: “The average yearly property tax paid by Pacific County residents amounts to about 3.03% of their yearly income.”  I got out my handy-dandy calculator to see if that was true for us.  Nope.  We’re a bit over the 10% level… Bummer!
     In a flight of fancy I got to wondering if that means we have the right to seven percent more of the County’s services than the ‘average’ County taxpayer.  Or maybe we can have an additional seven percent say in how the County is run.  Well… that’s what thinking about taxes does to me.  It makes me crazy.