Annually, our appraisers review all Sales in a "study year" that spans from April 1st of one year through March 31st of the following year. Sales are divided into various categories:
Good Sales
Good Sales are considered sales that reflect usual "arms length transactions" and reflect "market value".
Bad Sales
Bad Sales are considered sales that do not reflect usual "arms length transactions" and do not reflect "market value".
Once the "good sales" have been established they are grouped and used to review the various neighborhoods and their relationship to our assessments.
We have many (70+) Economic Areas or neighborhoods to allow the appraisers to focus on smaller segments of the 25,000+ properties in the City of Wyoming. These smaller Economic Areas generally reflect uniform property type groupings. Many of these areas have been created around certain historical years of development, plats, physical geography, school districts, use types or a consideration of all of these elements and other similar items. These EA's allow the appraisers to review the assessment level in each area and decide if that area needs immediate reappraisal work.
Occasionally the number of "good sales" available for any one EA is insufficient for analysis. When this occurs the appraiser may blend in the sales from a nearby EA of similar type properties, thereby creating a statistically significant sample for a study.
Periodically, reappraisals of existing neighborhoods are done to maintain uniformity of assessments at 50% of value. Appraisals are completed using a computerized 'Cost Approach' to value. The values provided by this approach embody the market level of each neighborhood, as measured by its Economic Condition Factor (ECF). The ECF is calculated from good sales in the neighborhood being appraised. When a property's assessment is appealed we review our appraisals with the 'Market Approach' to value. This approach involves direct comparison of the property under review to several of the most similar properties which have sold recently. Whatever approach is used, half of the resulting appraised value is used for the assessment. The amount of the taxable value (which can never exceed the assessed value) will be dependent on the Consumers Price Index (CPI) since the last sale of a property.