By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
ASHWAUBENON – Properties being sold near Lambeau Field as possible “party houses” are coming into play for this year’s planned village-wide property re-evaluation.
The issue was discussed Tuesday, March 27, when assessor Mike Denor provided the Ashwaubenon village board with an overview on the village being re-evaluated to bring homes and businesses closer to the market value they exist in today.
When asked by Village President Mary Kardoskee what the effect would be on someone selling a home near Lambeau Field for around double the current assessed value, Denor agreed that could “skew” the value of homes in that area.
He alluded to the possibility of that property being purchased as a “party house” with a change in state law no longer allowing municipalities to outright prohibit short-term rentals of single-family residential homes for seven or more consecutive days.
“If I’m going to make adjustments on these homes and I really haven’t decided where that line will be – you and I, I think, had some conversations in the past about this – in the past I looked at it that it’s zoned residential, it can only be used as residential…,” Denor said. “Having other uses available to them now, I do have to give that consideration that these homes, even though they’re zoned residential, they have a higher use.”
Denor said he expects determining the value of homes near Lambeau Field will be difficult for the re-evaluation.
“There’s also those parties that have no desire to sell,” such as “an elderly couple that are going to live out their years in that house,” he said. “I have to have equity. I have to treat them all the same. If I raise one, I just can’t spot re-val. They all go up or they all go down within a defined area. I haven’t completely determined how I’m going to do it.”
Kardoskee said she has “voiced my frustration with what (state lawmakers) did with taking away our zoning rights for short-term rentals.”
“Even they don’t know how it works down in Madison,” she said.
Re-evaluation process
Denor said the scope of this year’s re-evaluation will involve “market adjustment.”
“Market adjustment is also known as book re-val,” he said. “It is not requiring interior inspections of properties. It’s more looking at the existing data we have.”
Denor said the data will include looking at residential property over at least three years with sales over that time period.
“We create what’s called ‘model,’ based on all these sales in the different parts of the village,” he said. “And once we have that model established, it’s what we refer to as a ‘cost-driven market approach.’ Once we have the model established, then we’ll value all the homes in the village. After that’s done, we also bring in the actual sales comparison approach to see how that will bear up against our model.”
Denor said he will also be looking at the commercial sales, though there are “nowhere near as many sales as we have in the residential sector.”
He also noted many commercial properties are unique from one another, making it difficult to compare them.
“Once all these properties are valued – commercial and residential – we have to look and see what the Department of Revenue has on the overall value of the village,” Denor said. “I’m under contract to have our assessed values at or very near 100 percent. So when I’m completed with the project, if I’m a little high or a little low on the overall value, as compared or determined by the Department of Revenue, I will do mass adjustments on all parcels, all properties…”
Though a given house may be worth $100,000, he said to match that up with the village having 100 percent of the equalized value, that house could end up being valued anywhere from $98,000 to $101,000.
Upon all the assessments being completed, which should be somewhere from middle to late July, Denor said notices will be sent out for every property in the village, for which there will be a 30-day open book period when property owners will be able to contact his office.
After the open-book session is completed, he said sometime around mid to late August the Board of Review will meet.