Overview of Current Market Conditions

The Assessor’s Office has compiled a review of the history of real estate sales in Essex for single and multi-family properties since the last revaluation. This overview is designed to give the taxpayers a better idea of the trends that have affected the real estate market in the last five years. The last revaluation was completed as of 10/1/2003. The current revaluation will be based on 70% of market value as of 10/1/2008. By looking at the changes in selling price and level of assessment, we can see in what direction assessments are heading. For this analysis we have used the median as our measure of central tendency. This means that we organize all sales in order from the highest to the lowest and the median is the middle ground in the array. We use the median instead of the average because it gives equal weight to each sale. The average gives additional weight to very high and very low sales.

In general we can draw two conclusions from this analysis (see charts below): that a downturn affected the market in 2007 (see the drop in median price for 2007) and that prices have not fallen back to 10/1/2003 levels (see median price and level of assessment).

Additionally, it should be noted that the increase in the median selling price as of 10/1/2008 is not due to an increase in overall market value, but rather an increase in the number of higher value properties sold as of 10/1/2008. This conclusion is supported by the second chart that shows the change in the level of assessment over the same time period.

As we can see in the ratio study, the median level of assessment for 2008 is virtually unchanged from 2007 level, even though the median selling price increased between 2007 and 2008. The conclusion is that a higher proportion of more expensive homes sold during 2008.

Our last data study looked at the residential properties that are currently on the market in Essex. There are approximately 88 parcels listed for sale. The median asking price for that group is $599,450 while the median proposed value (new 100% value) is $477,100. The median asking price to new 100% appraised value ratio is 83%. This shows that the new proposed values have not exceeded the asking prices for properties currently on the market and, in fact, have discounted the asking prices by approximately 15 to 17%.

2003 to 2008 Median Sale Price Comparison

2003 to 2008 Median Ratio Study

Essex Real Estate on the Market Study