If property values go down in King County, will taxes follow? Not necessarily

In some parts of King County, property values are dropping. But that doesn't mean property taxes will fall.

The King County real estate market has cooled off.

Countywide, property owners may see a reduction in values anywhere from about 8% on Queen Anne to more than 20% in some areas, like the Sammamish Plateau. Those are areas that were red hot just a year ago.

King County Assessor John Wilson said "after record increases last year, what we're seeing is a natural course correction of the real estate market."

In an interview with KUOW, Wilson said roughly 40% of property taxes go toward voter-approved measures.

Assessors set the values, but not the taxes.

When it comes to setting property values, the process is quite complicated.

"Well, we have a whole series of things that are best practices in the industry," Wilson said.

King County is broken down into 85 separate "residential inspection" areas.

"We don't compare Medina or Bellevue to, you know, Skykomish," Wilson said. "It's within each neighborhood context."

Wilson said county assessors do extensive modeling and cross-linking to those models.

"We've had an incredibly dynamic real estate market the last couple of years," Wilson said.

If values are trending down, and local jurisdictions are able to meet their budgets, the county could see an overall reduction in property taxes.

But Wilson said it won't necessarily be a one-to-one correlation.

Property taxes will be set by local jurisdictions this fall and will include any local levies approved by voters.