In a sign of Westport’s improving economic health, Westport’s Grand List for 2015—reflecting the latest revaluation—jumped 7.8 percent or approximately $780 million to $10.876 billion, Assessor Paul Friia announced today.
This compared a 1.5 percent increase in 2014 over the previous year and 1.3 percent increase in 2013.
On Jan. 31, Friia signed the Oct. 1, 2015 Grand List as required by state statute. The list is the sum of the net assessed value of all taxable property: real estate, motor vehicles and personal property.
Home values increased approximately 7.5 percent, while commercial values showed a healthy 10 percent jump, making the combined increase in the real estate categories 8.3 percent.
He said that of the 8.3 percent increase, about 1 percent, was due to building permit activity.
“The increase indicates the continued strength of the Westport real estate market,” he said.
Friia said the increases are based on the completion of the town’s revaluation process and the valuation of building permits related to residential and commercial new construction, as well as renovation activity that occurred within the past assessment year.
Revaluations must be conducted every five years. At least one revaluation every 10 years must conducted by physical inspection; the other may be conducted by statistical means.
Individual properties are assessed based on comparable sales, the amount of income a property generates, or the cost of replacing the building.
Residential property comprises 87.4 percent of the Grand List and commercial properties 12.6 percent, with no significant proportional shift between the two categories, Friia said.
Motor vehicle assessments, meanwhile, had a 1 percent decrease.
However, Friia explained that the motor vehicle grand list for 2015 was based on information from the state Department of Motor Vehicles that has been negatively affected due to the problems with its new computer system.
Personal property showed an approximate 2 percent decrease in assessment totals.
Motor vehicles and personal property are valued annually, while real estate is updated every five years based on the market values determined as of the town’s revaluation of Oct.1, 2015.
The current net 2015 Grand List totals are: more than $10.268 billion in real estate; $321,487,169 in motor vehicles, and $287,006,004 in personal property.
