Urban Planning - GIS for Local Government: Participation Assignment

This final participation assignment involved performing as a GIS technician with a Property Appraiser's office.  The first part involved learning a bit about the way a property appraiser's office manages property data with GIS. This was followed by learning how to display parcel data in a fashion that allows for quick interpretation and comparison of data.

My home county is Escambia County, Florida, which has a property appraiser’s web mapping site at http://www.escpa.org/CAMAGIS/ along with a mobile version available as well (http://www.escpa.org/mobile/map/mapmain.html). The county also has data downloads available at http://www.escpa.org/MapMain.aspx.

June 2014 Property Sales

A search of Escambia County real estate records can be done by specific dates at http://www.escpa.org/cama/SaleSearch.aspx. A recent search for the month of June 2014 revealed that the selling price for the highest-selling property in Escambia County, Florida, in June 2014 was a whopping $6,000 on 6/18/2014. All other properties that were transferred in June 2014 had sale prices of $100.  That covers many different types of transfers, including quitclaim deeds, probate, etc. In Oct 2007 the aforementioned property was transferred by quitclaim deed for $100.

For the property mentioned above, the assessed land value is $4,560. With improvements, the total assessed value is $6,888. Usually I see assessed values lower than recent sales values, but this particular assessment is higher than the most recent sale price.

Sales Records and Assessed Values for One Property

Additional information about this property makes note that the improvements on the land consist of a mobile home. Also, this property had a tax deed transfer in 1999 for delinquent taxes. That this was the highest selling property (at the time I accessed the information) for a whole month in Escambia County is interesting.  Some of the $100 “sales” (quitclaim transfers of property) were because of probate situations; others might have been transfers as the result of divorce settlements.

The second part of the participation assignment involved generating a map showing the assessed land values for a subdivision in Escambia County, Florida. IMHO, showing easements across properties is a good idea in that it indicates the extent of a factor which could negatively impact the worth of a property. Easements may give rights to access, construction, and maintenance of utility lines along with other purposes. Given two otherwise identical lots, the lot which has a utility easement across it should be valued less since the owner would not have full use of that area.

West Ridge Place - Land Assessment Values (2011)
Escambia County, Florida

Several lots in West Ridge Place subdivision should be considered for re-assessment:

• Lot # 090310165 is assessed more than $6,000 higher than all other lots in its vicinity.
• Lot # 090310290 should be re-assessed as well to be more in alignment. Like Lot # 090310105 across the street, this lot is impacted by three different easements. A lower assessed value may be justified.
• If Lot # 090310410 is not an easement of some kind, then it should be re-assessed for being significantly lower in assessed value even though it is quite a bit larger than other lots in the subdivision.

Because there is no road frontage on Mobile Highway or Chester Drive for Lot # 090310420, it appears to be one of the easements mentioned in the introductory material.

To someone who is interested in monitoring the home values of her own neighborhood, much of the experience of roaming around a property appraiser's web site was quite familiar already. I know how much the recent sales were, who owns the vacant house on the corner, who owns the house that's being used as a drive-up drug store (we're not talking Walgreens here), etc. Life in the 'hood. There's always something going on...