Although assessments were high countywide last year, the rate of assessment increase varied in different parts of the county, figures from the real-estate division of the Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration (DTA) show.
Residential properties' assessed value grew an average 16.27 percent last year to an average $272, 943. But assessment increases ranged from 19.91 percent in the Centreville area to 14.11 percent in the McLean area. Assessment increases for about 4 percent of all county residential properties were as high as 30 percent.
The assessment statistics, which were released in February, are "our best approximation of market value," said Janet Coldwell, director of the real-estate division of the department of tax administration. "We're in a hot real-estate market."
Assessment increases also varied based on the type of property.
"We had more pressure on condominiums than on townhomes. In part I think that's due to their affordability," said Coldwell. Assessments on condominiums increased 21.19 percent to an average $117,524. By comparison, townhome assessments increased an average 18.56 percent to an average $191,085.
For the 2002 assessment, the DTA looked at real-estate transactions from late 2000 and during 2001. "It's a point in time," said Coldwell. Any market fluctuation that occurs after assessments have been released is calculated in the next year's figures. Still, Coldwell estimates the assessed prices to be between 90 and 94 percent of the market prices.
HOWEVER, ACCORDING TO DAVID HOWELL, a broker with the real-estate company McEnearny Associates, assessments are a poor measure of a home's market price. "Truly a consumer shouldn't hang her hat on that," he said. Assessments, he said, "are looking for overall market trends," rather than focusing on individual characteristics of each property. But, he added, "that's not an indictment on the county."
Howell sees the sharp increase in assessments this past year as a kind of stabilization. "Some of that has to do with the county catching up with reality," he said.
Average market prices for homes exceeded $300,000 for the first time in December and has stayed above $300,000 for three of the last four months, he said. Currently, the average market price of a home in Fairfax County is $304, 248, up 8.4 percent from last year's average of $280,767.
Although no figures are kept on the sale prices of residential properties broken down by area in the county, Howell said that the most expensive part of Fairfax County was McLean and Great Falls, where the median price of a home is over $700,000.
Homes inside the Beltway are also "off the scales," said Marghi Fauss, an associate broker with McEnearny.
"Any place that has a community feeling to it, like Reston Town Center," is also very popular, she added. Features such as sidewalk cafes, the proximity of shops and restaurants, draw people to certain areas. "Townhomes, houses and condos cluster around those things," said Fauss. "Everybody wants to be in a community. It's across every age group."
Howell expects residential real-estate prices to keep going up for at least another year. "We believe this is going to remain a seller's market for the next 12-18 months," he said.