Residents Grill Expert on Second Village-Wide Revaluation

How will the second village-wide revaluation in Scarsdale differ from the first? That was the question at a three-hour meeting of the Village Board of Trustees on Thursday April 21. Mayor Jon Mark opened the meeting by explaining that John F. Ryan, the man who monitoried the first revaluation and was subsequently hired to conduct the second revaluation, would review his process. Mark said while the first revaluation was done well, the "Second village wide revaluation will smooth some of the rough edges from the first one. We hope this will be an improvement on how things stand. A different modeling approach is going to be used. We will do our utmost to be transparent with this process. The results will be posted on June 1. Mailers will go out on June 2 with property valuations. The mailers will also explain how the number was derived. You won't have to go through the laborious foil process." The meeting was recorded and you can watch it here.

Ryan said, "This process started out almost a year ago. We looked at sales and did an analysis. We focused on updating existing values to market values as of June 2015, but did consider sales that closed up to 3 months after that. We used the latest information possible. We have to set the value as of July 2015."

He continued, "The goals of this revaluation are the same goals of any revaluation:

1) to generate accurate values
2) to generate uniform values

Ryan said, "The Village has the responsibility for uniformity... no one should pay anymore than their fair share.... An assessor went out in the field and reviewed the properties, looking at the characteristics that are most important in assigning values." According to Ryan, "The data from the first evaluation was very good. There was a very high entry rate and it was done very thoroughly."

For this reval, "An assessor rode the entire community and looked at all the properties from the public way. The Village looks at all open permits and the Assessor's Office looked at grievances and also considered new sales data. We will continue to look at the data right up to the June 1 deadline. The letter that you receive will show the data about the property. You will be able to see how your value was derived."

Ryan then displayed the following sales data for the overall number of home sales and for the number of sales of homes priced at $2.9 million and up. He said that they use the median not the mean sale price because it is a better reflection of sales activity in the area. It is evident that the total number of total sales has remained fairly constant.

Ryan continued, "There is still an active market. We use as many sales as we need to come up with a solid model. The more transparent and understandable the evaluation process is, the wider the acceptance from the public. We don't hide behind statistics – the model should be understandable."

Furthermore, the new model uses fewer factors or variables then the previous one. Ryan said that the previous model had "Too many gradations and too many factors. We minimized the number of gradations. We changed the number of gradations form 43 to 14. We consolidated the neighborhoods significantly. There are no more sub neighborhoods."

He explained, "I know that property owners will be happy that they can use the formula to replicate their value. We value total properties, not land and homes. For vacant lots we need to estimate the value of the built site. Where you do not have an improved property, the assessor has to estimate the value of a built property."

The audience was primarily comprised of people with homes in the Heathcote Association and they were not reassured by Ryan's update. They seemed to be more focussed on the prior revaluation than on the proposed improvements for the upcoming one.

They voiced their unhappiness about a range of issues including:

-The Village's manager's offices failure to do a better job publicizing the meeting.
-Issues with their valuations as determined in the July, 2014 revaluation
-Mistrust of the process
-A perception that the prior revaluation had killed the market for higher priced homes valued at more than $2.9 million in Scarsdale.

Ron Parlato who is both a resident and a builder said, "I learned that the first revaluation was not done properly. I think it was a flawed valuation... There is a bent to come after the wealthy people in this town ... people who give to this town. I am tired of it."

He continued, "I want the board to hire an outside company to tell us what went wrong with our assessment. The market has been destroyed in the upper level."

He continued, "I am on 2.7 acres and I live in 10,000 square foot house with another structure that is 1,200 square feet. I had to hire a lawyer and an appraiser. And I went to court and was dropped from $7.4mm to $6.5mm." He yelled at the Trustees, saying, "The first revaluation was not done properly in this town. Hire an outside expert to do a complete study of the Tyler Assessment... I am really angry – I am a builder and a homeowner. I am not putting up with this anymore."

Parlato's son-in-law Steve Rakoff who is a developer and realtor spoke at length. He repeated many of Parlato's concerns and said, "You have destroyed every persons nest egg in this room." "I want this thing done right. I want the data to be independently analyzed. We have no confidence in $2.9 million and up. The market is limping along. Sales volume is irrelevant. We cannot be in a town that does not want truth and justice."

He continued, "We had a perfect system running for 40 years. We destroyed a billion dollars in equity in this town. On my street there are 7 listings. I say it (the assessment process) was never broken."

About the 2014 revaluation he said, "4,500 homes got a discounted assessment ratio. They got a discount! The ½ acre and smaller lots got a discount."

Peter Katchis of 3 Morris Lane said that he has been here for 48 years. He bought 2.5 acres in 1968. It is a non-conforming lot that is long and narrow. He built his 3,600 square foot home according to zoning regulations, developing an acre and half and leaving the rest as woods. He complained that after the 2014 revaluation his taxes went from $50,000 to $90,000 and he was given an assessed value of $4.1 million. He hired his own assessor who valued the property at $3.1 million but the Village assessor did not reduce his assessment.

Bob Harrison expressed his anger that the meeting was not better publicized and that the new assessed values would not be released until June. He yelled at Ryan, saying "Why can't you spit out the values sooner? You've been working on this since last summer. "What have you been doing for 6-8 months? We have a tax increase. We have elderly people who can't afford an increase in their taxes. People are living on fixed incomes."

Turning to the Trustees he said, "I hope you are going to reduce the tax increase next Tuesday. You are allowed to change that and apply more of the fund balance. You have the money – it should not be in your pocket!"

The Mayor interrupted Harrison, saying "It is not in our pocket. Sit down Bob."

Mary Katchis who has been a broker for over 40 years in Scarsdale/Edgemont said, "There are no sales over $5mm. Something must be done. What should I tell my clients? We can't get a buyer. The taxes are turning many people away."

Watch the entire meeting on the Scarsdale Public Television website here.